PrintSOS Tips: Eating local year-round
Do you know where your food comes from? A recent study indicates that the products that make up a typical North American meal travel an average of 2,400 km before winding up on our tables.
And yet, we have the opportunity to eat locally all year long.
Yes, that’s right - it’s possible even in winter, and you can continue shopping at your regular grocery store.
Main advantages of eating local
1. Impact on our taste buds and on our health:
The main advantage is taste: an apple that’s grown in a local orchard is fresher and has more flavour than one that has travelled a long distance.
Local fruits and vegetables are picked when they are fully mature, and as a result, they contain a higher nutritional value.
In fact, imported vegetables - which are transported long distances over many days - are picked prematurely, sometimes when they are still unripe! All of this is done so that they are presentable and attractive upon arrival.
Moreover, foods that are transported over long distances are often preserved with the help of chemicals. They even undergo physical treatments that can also block their nutritional value (ex. vitamin C, which is sensitive to temperature).
Local food is grown or raised in accordance to strict and transparent health, environmental and social standards. Certain studies have shown that imported vegetables often contain more pesticide residues than those cultivated locally.
2 - Impact on the environment:
Locally produced foods require only a fraction of the energy it takes to transport foods that are produced far away.
Therefore, by selecting a local product, you help to reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution released into the atmosphere.
3 - Impact on our economy:
Buying locally boosts our economy and provides jobs for people in our cities and provinces. According to Equiterre,
“if every week, each family in Quebec took $20 worth of imported goods and replaced them with Quebec products of the same value, more than 100,000 jobs could be created.”
Identifying Quebec-made products
It’s important to read the labels. There is a label, “Aliments du Québec”, which can be applied to two types of products:
- Those that have been entirely produced in Quebec, or
- Those, whose main ingredients are from Quebec, and where all of the processing and packaging is done in Quebec.
- Turkey and chicken: The ones that you see in the frozen food section most probably come from Quebec or Canada - the origin of the farm is sometimes mentioned - since they fall under the supply management mechanism. Supply management is also applicable to eggs and milk.
- Lamb: Quebec-produced lamb can be identified by its logo.
- Veal: 80% of what is displayed in grocery stores comes from local producers.
- Pork and beef: Since they don’t necessarily originate from Quebec, ask the butcher where they are from and check the labels.
- Other specialty meats: Duck, rabbit, guinea hens and quails are all locally produced.
- Lobster: Available from the end of April until July. It can be identified by the “Aliments du Québec” logo on the white elastic bands around the claws.
- Snow crab: Available fresh from April through October, frozen all year long.
- Rainbow trout and Arctic char: Available throughout the year. Be careful not to confuse rainbow trout with salmon trout - this is imported.
- Mussels/shrimps/scallops/mackerel: Seldom available in grocery stores due to insufficient quantities. They are easier to find at a fishmonger.
- Available fresh all year long: carrots, onions, potatoes, turnips, rutabaga (Swedish turnip), beets, parsnip, celeriac, squashes, mushrooms, green cabbage, Belgian endive and sweet potatoes.
- Grown in greenhouses: lettuce and tomatoes.
- In winter: Arctic Garden’s frozen foods are made with broccoli, beans, corn, peas, etc. that have been harvested in Quebec.
- The first vegetables of spring: asparagus (look for the ones with yellow elastics), lettuce, radishes and fiddleheads.
- In summer we can find a very large variety of locally grown vegetables. The end of summer is the time to stock up for the coming winter. All that is required is a little work in the kitchen and some space in your freezer!
- Available fresh all year long: apples.
- In winter: Use rhubarb and frozen berries (blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, etc.)
There is also the “Aliments préparés au Québec” label. This is used when at least 50% of a product's ingredients are of Quebec origin and if at least 80% of the costs linked to its production as well as to the processing and packaging are incurred in Quebec.
This is applicable even if the raw material is not available in Quebec, so long as 100% of the processing and packaging activities are carried out in Quebec.
This label is optional, yet very important. According to a very recent study carried out for Aliments du Québec, 7 out of 10 consumers wish that they could more easily recognize products from Quebec in local grocery stores.
In 81% of these cases, this would have been enough for them to select a local product.
What you should know about the products from Quebec:
Since the origin of Quebec foods is not always clearly identified, here a few tips.
1 - Meat:
2 - Seafood:
3 - Cheese:
Where cheeses are concerned, we in Quebec are spoiled for choice! Quebec cheeses need no longer envy the ones that are imported, because local cheeses have distinctive, flavourful and characteristic tastes.
4 - Vegetables:
5 - Fruits:
6 - Drinks:
Beer, wine (more than 300,000 bottles are produced each year in Quebec - there is even an organic variety), ice ciders, water and apple juice are all drinks that can originate from Quebec.
Here is a 7-day menu composed of local produce, for 4 people, as suggested in the May 21, 2009 episode of Par-dessus le marché. Watch the corresponding video for that episode.