'The hunger for connection'

by Tom Crann, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul, Minn. — When you sit down to eat dinner tonight, do you know how far your food traveled to get to your plate? In the United State, it's probably made an average journey of 1,500 miles. For some, that's too far.

That journey raises all sorts of questions, from energy consumption to the effect on the local economy. That's where "locavores" come in. Locavores pledge to eat only food grown within 100 miles of where they live.

Jessica Prentice is a leader of that movement, and she even coined the word. She's the author of "Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection." She talked with MPR's Tom Crann.