Local Food

So there’s a big movement afoot and I want to learn more. It is so complicated to make good choices. I hear people say that they never open a can. But is that really “the best”? I want to use tomatoes out of season (maybe that’s the problem?). Is it better to buy fresh tomatoes that were grown and shipped using tons of resources? Or better to use tomatoes that were canned in season? Or should I be canning my own — since I don’t have an industrial sized stove, it seems to me I would use a lot more resources to can my own tomatoes than if I just buy a can when I need it ….

Is it better to use local food that takes a lot of resources to grown in an unfriendly environment? Or better to let them grown where they normally grow. It seems to me that might be more efficient and use less resources.

I gather I should start with Kingsolver’s book that has been mentioned on many different lists. I’m 190 on the waiting list at the library, so I think that lots of others have questions like mine!