April Luginbuhl Mather

My personal interests revolve around the environment, both knowing more about it and getting outside and enjoying my surroundings. This led me down an educational path to a couple of degrees in geography. Studying geography means much more than knowing how to find Iowa on a map. Geography is a field where various concerns, environmental or otherwise, can be examined in the context of relationships between people, places, locations, and economics. Due to both my interest in my surroundings, and my educational background issues of local food production, sustainability, and local economic viability are central interests to me. My current professional interests center on US climate change policy and I am finishing my Ph.D. in geography this year.

While I've always enjoyed the geography of food, I took an interest in food geography as applied to my life when I met my husband. He has a host of food allergies, and the best way to not trigger them is to just cook from scratch. I had to learn a lot about food science and the ways in which ingredients interact (Among his allergies are eggs, but I can make anything that normally has egg in it except for angel food cake. I never did figure out how to replace eggs there). We are also cautious with pesticides, so organic fruits and veggies are our preference whenever possible. Learning to cook around his allergies both opened up a wide range of culinary skills for me, and has also opened us up to a wide range of foods. We eat a reduced meat diet with the occasional organic and/or free-range beef and pork (he's allergic to chicken and all other poultry too). Avoiding eggs means that we utilize a lot of vegan techniques, and joining a CSA (community supported agriculture group) has helped us be semi-vegetarian.

We also try to eat locally and organic. Buying and eating locally is important to me for a few reasons. The first is that local food production has the potential to be sustainable in the long run. Even the hardships of poor economic times, or shifting climates can be mitigated a little if we have strong local networks and access to food near by. Those networks often become personal, which is even better from a community-building standpoint. When I belonged to a CSA, I knew the farmer and his family. I went to the farm and saw how my food was grown. I knew what was on that food, and what I was putting into my body. That sort of knowledge is empowering and reassuring to me. Eating local doesn't have to mean you have an on going discussion with whoever produces your food. You can know you're helping your economy, helping a neighbor stay in business, and reducing the waste of carting food in from all over the country and world.

The timing of the Locavore Nation project is a challenge to the chaos in my life. 2008 is a year of big changes for my family as I prepare to graduate, my husband just got a new job and we're moving to a new region, and we're expecting our first child this summer. Any one of these changes alone would be enough to throw off our regular rhythms, but all of them at once is particularly challenging. This project will help me stay focused and keep to the goals of eating local, even when it would be easier to just let it slide for a while. I look forward to sharing this adventure, and welcome your thoughts and comments.