Both trails and relational eating can connect the back-country with life in the cities, to the benefits of all

Walking paths and relational eating improve both the life in the city, and in the countryside

Text and drawing by Frits Ahlefeldt, Hiking.org

Our cities, surrounded by huge highways and suburbs, is often cut off from the healing and less stressful landscapes of the countryside. But it doesn’t need to be like this. Two fast growing ways of connecting the cities to the surrounding landscapes and foods are seen in more and more cities: Walking and Relational Eating. Both helps to connect the city dwellers to the food and landscapes that surrounds them, and not only the people in the city benefits from this

Farming, trails and relational eating

When people hike local, by walking from their doorstep, they get a chance to meet local farmers, sustainable farming  and with their own eyes see how the animals on the farms are thriving. More and more hikers use this as an alternative and better way to buy and relate to the food they eat. It is also an alternative to rely on the dull, never changing grey food products from industrial mega-farming.

Local products, bought directly from the farm, might be slightly more expensive to walk back to the city. But the relationship the hiker build with the local  farmer will be the beginning of a much better and more sustainable friendship and a way to bring local products into the streets, markets and centers of the city. Letting farmers sell directly to city folks to the joy and more tasteful experience of all: