Sustainable gourmet

In a conversation with a friend (a chef) this weekend, he said "I think local is the new organic." I'd like to make sustainable the new local.

We're not as bad-off as Australia . . . yet. But we may be headed that way -- in my time in Kansas, I learned that the Ogallala aquifer (the source of water for all of Western Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma and parts of Texas and Eastern Colorado) is expected to run dry in 5-15 years. I learned that people are shot over water theft in parts of Colorado. I got scared. Coming from a wet area, drought wasn't really a factor in my life -- we had dry summers, but nothing too bad. Of course, now my parents have to conserve their well water in drought conditions, but that means only watering part of the garden each day. Not no-water-in-the-ground.

So where does gourmet come in? Where do we get our beef? Our corn? Where do our beef get their corn? I'm not against having cattle on the western plains; in fact, I think they're the most sensible thing to have out there. Grazing. Not eating corn grown on land that can't support it. Grass-fed beef? Not tender enough, according to some, but better than turning Nebraska into a desert. It may be best to plan your cooking, even your gourmet cooking, around foods that could be here in a decade.