New Mexico is on the verge of some major success with regional food efforts, so long as a blind, do-gooder federal government doesn’t screw it all up for us.

SFR's annual guide offering entree into the world local eating and economics:

The first thing to understand about local food is that it is not a fad among the wealthy or a hobby for the bourgeoisie. Local and regional food systems are possibly the most overlooked and undervalued mechanisms for fighting obesity and diabetes, decreasing health care costs, increasing energy efficiency, bolstering the economy and restoring community in a society increasingly marked by alienation and despair in a global, fast-paced, high-tech world.

The Santa Fe Alliance is spearheading and effort to transform the local food and energy economy.

The Del Monte Sol Charter School is proving that science starts in the kitchen.

Wednesdays in the Railyard aren’t exactly thebusiest night of the week. I almost expect the proverbial tumbleweed to blow across Montezuma as I walk toward the New Mexico Film Museum—formerly known as the Jean Cocteau Theater. Once inside, the tiny lobby holds six people, which fills it just about to capacity.

Long before agriculture became an industry, farmers were saving seeds from their harvest for replanting the following year. It was not only practical, but necessary for survival.

Elbert Hubbard wrote, “If I had but two loaves of bread, I would sell one of them and buy white hyacinths to feed my soul.” And so it is with the appetites and with essential human nourishment; we hunger not only for calories, but also for things impalpable and out of reach, things familiar and unknown, sentimental and self-destructive.

I hate to be the spoiler in this locavore lovefest, but for all the great aliments to be had in our high-desert home, there’s a whole mess to be desired. That is, if you’re like me and can’t part with your time-honored favorites.

We’re taking part in an international movement of environmentalists who question who owns public land and adding our aesthetics to a well-traveled section of downtown Santa Fe. We’re guerrilla gardening.

Local honey, in addition to being a byproduct of local pollinators, is an energy-infused, sumptuous, gourmet, locavore sweetener that boosts the immune system and helps deflect allergies.