While it is often disputed among Americans where exactly the first Thanksgiving took place, we can be certain of one thing: it was in celebration of the harvest.

Whether it first occurred in Massachusetts or Virginia, all of the food would have been grown "locally" due to transportation and other logistical constraints of the time.

Locally grown has made a resurgence in recent years—a wonderful movement that puts people in touch with their food. But if we depend on locally grown alone, there's a lot we'll miss out on.

So, this got us thinking. What would our Thanksgiving dinner look like if we used only what could be produced in our immediate regions?

In Florida you'd have plenty of sugar cane for the pie, but it may be lemon meringue instead of pumpkin. And you'd probably be serving beef in place of your traditional Thanksgiving turkey.

And in Nebraska, you would have no problem finding a turkey, but probably wouldn't find too many yams or green beans, meaning that your favorite Thanksgiving casseroles may be missing from the table.

We are able to enjoy all of these things however because nowadays, the concept of "local" is relative when you consider that a product can travel the 3,000 miles coast to coast in one day.

In 2008, Congress defined the term "locally" in the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act as, "the locality or region in which the final product is marketed, so that the total distance that the product is transported is less than 400 miles from the origin of the product; or the State in which the product is produced."

400 miles is a lot closer today than it was at the first Thanksgiving. Unlike in 1621, someone in Alexandria, Virginia can visit family in Ontario, Canada in less than 400 miles and a few short hours.

At the same time, the food that is produced in East Texas would be more local, geographically speaking, to the residents of Louisiana than those of West Texas, even though they are in different states.

Because of the advances that have been made in agriculture and transportation, America is local. So let's come together to celebrate in our own way by sharing what we can with one another and taking advantage of all of America's bounty, rather than just what we can find in our backyard.