Today I went to the Green Table, a restaurant in Chelsea Market featuring local food. As part of my research I've been looking around for New York restaurants that focus on local food. To any other New Yorkers, check out the book "Clean Plates NYC" by Jared Koch and Alex Van Buren for a good guide of NYC's "healthiest tastiest" restaurants. New York City is a pretty good area for local food -- many of the places the authors identify as healthy and delicious are also focused on serving local food. I picked the Green Table because they self-identify as a "fresh, local, seasonal, handcrafted sustainable eatery and wine bar."

I went because people throw around a lot of lingo when it comes to food; food vendors and grocery stores advertise their operations as fresh, local, organic, sustainable, seasonal. With green movements gaining momentum, this type of marketing pays off, and often these words are used interchangeably. However, these qualifiers have unique meanings. For example, local isn't necessarily sustainable; if farming practices are depleting nutrients from the soil, that farmland will be useless in a few years. And organic food can be transported thousands of miles to get to a Whole Foods near you.

In addition, different organizations have different standards for these terms. Some people consider "local" to mean in their immediate community, while others determine if food is local by considering a set mile radius from their home. There isn't one "right" way to choose your food - you have to weigh the various advantages and disadvantages. Maybe you can't live without certain foods. Try and see if that food is grown anywhere in the U.S. Some fruit that the U.S. imports from China and South America is also grown in California or Florida (for a list of the countries the U.S. imports produce from, click here). If you live in the U.S. and you can't start your day without a cup of coffee, chances are you can't eat completely locally - that's ok. Look for coffees and exotic products that are "fair trade" or "rainforest alliance" certified. These certifications promote environmentally sustainable farming practices and help protect workers' rights in developing nations (for more info about certification, check out http://www.fairtrade.net/ and http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/). Not everyone has the time, money, and energy to make sure they eat 100% sustainable, local, and organic 100% of the time. Rather, just look for a shorter distance, a more direct payment to farmers, or less pesticide use when choosing between alternatives.

But back to the green table. While the menu was short and the space small, it was delicious! My mac and cheese featured cheese from Neighborly Farms in Vermont and milk from the Hudson Valley. They include the sources of the ingredients on the menu as well. My lunch today goes to show that eating local doesn't have to be hard work all the time. My food was positively scrumptious, and knowing that my food was better for the environment helped me savor the flavor.