Exactly How Hard is it to find Locally Grown?

I know that it's better to eat local produce (clearly) but at the grocery store, I was amazed by how un-local everything is. (By the way, I was at Meijer, not WalMart, so at least I was supporting an area grocery store chain and not a large worldwide corporation.) Everything at the grocery store was grown in California! I know it's only May and still pretty early for a lot of fruits and vegetables, but still, I would like a bundle of strawberries or a crop of onions at least from Indiana. I can't even reach the local farmer's market I used to go to due to the construction on Aboite Ctr and Dickie. Plus, Hilger's closed down last year which is seriously tragic. Why does it seem harder to find good food? I would go down to the Whole Foods place down by the zoo, but my parents say the food there is too expensive even though i repeatedly tell them it's worth it. My mom is the dietitian in the family, however, so she has more authority... for now. This obviously ties in to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which I'm afraid is making me a food zealot (which, by the way, is a soon-to-be etymology word). In the pages I was reading, Barabara Kingsolver and family go on vacation around the East coast and somehow, they find local owned, local grown restaurants everywhere! Where does this happen? Maybe, growing up in the second largest city in Fort Wayne has altered my perspective on food. I'm usually a big city person, so when I'm on vacation, I never see locally grown food and even if I did, the prices would most likely be outrageous. I'm just glad that my mom agreed to let me take over the vegetable garden this year. If I don't kill these plants hopefully I'll have some food. I grow flowers successfully so hopefully vegetables won't be much different. According to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I should just ask around at grocery stores for locally grown food and apparently that's suppose to encourage supposed manager to start bringing in locally grown food to their store. I feel bad asking though. I'm afraid I'll get that look that adults always give the picky and radical teenager, like I'm trying to cause trouble or something. There's a whole foods market down at Bloomington, so I feel like I may have to go to IU for college. My parents are still trying to push for Purdue, since they both went there, but I don't know. Purdue does have a really nice Greek place and a very authentic Indian restaurant, but the last time I was there, Baptists were passing out pamphlets claiming that evolution doesn't exist. As a future Biology major, that was a little scary. Plus, Purdue may not accept some AP credits. Wow, really off topic. But basically, this chapter was suppose to prove that it's easy to find locally grown food in your area. I'm not really convinced. I'm pretty sure the land in Southern Virgina is easier to work with than the clay I have to work with in Northern Indiana. I didn't even have enough room to grow corn in my garden, and that's what we're known for. Iowa is actually the biggest corn producing state. I should probably end this post before I ramble on more.

Animal, Vegetable Miracle: 20 pgs