If you have been around the ecology and going green movement for very long, you have obviously hear the term locavore.  A locavore is simply a person who makes every attempt to eat food grown locally.  It ties in with the 100 mile diet that has grown in popularity over the past few years.

I am all for the locavore movement.  The term locavore was even voted work of the year by the 2007 Oxford American Dictionary.   I do, however, have my own concerns about the movement.

There are locavores who are extremely strict about how they eat.  The entire movement is based loosely on the premise that you should not eat anything that is not grown locally.  Last I heard, they don’t grow much coffee in mid-Michigan, nor are there any salt mines close by.  Not too many sugar cane fields, either!   So I have to ask myself - do I forego coffee, salt, sugar, and all manner of things not grown within a 100 mile radius to support the movement?  I don’t think so.

It is common knowledge that most things seen on the supermarket shelves came for a 1,500 mile radius.  Some things come even further, such as goods shipped from other nations.  Coffee comes to mind, as spices like cinnamon and peppercorns.  Many of the vinegars come from elsewhere, also, but there are local producers who make a decent apple cider vinegar.

I have to ask myself if in this supercharged world of ours how many women are willing to stand over a hot stove for days on end to can local fruits and vegetables for the winter months.  When both spouses work outside the home, and if there are children, I find that a bit unrealistic.  That was fine when I was a kid growing up on a farm.  Mom canned religiously all summer to prepare us for winter.  Dad raised beef and pork for the table.  We had a huge garden that kept us kids busy all summer weeding, hoeing and harvesting.  We picked local blueberries and blackberries, peaches, apples, cherries and pears.  Our farm held several of these trees, and in the swales blueberries grew.  The forests around our neighborhood produced blackberries the size of your thumb.  .  Believe me when I say how hard this work was.  Just keeping food on the table in that era was a full time job.  And remember too, this was over 50 years ago, when local farm communities were plentiful.

I think today that the locavore movement can only survive if people work together.  In the small town in which I live, local farmers have a small farmer’s market on the courthouse square.  There are several organic and micro-farms in my area, but they specialize in things like mushrooms and some heritage vegetables.  If you don’t know a local farmer, getting a half beef or hog is hard to do.   I help supplement the family table by growing hydroponic tomatoes, cukes, peppers and herbs on the roof of our downtown building.  It still isn’t enough.

Without a local chapter of folks working together, the reality of a locavore and 10 mile diet is very hard to maintain.  My goal for this year is to raise awareness through a column in a local newspaper, and to organize a group that if nothing else can brainstorm a locavore movement hat is realistic.  Yes, I am concerned about our carbon footprint.  I love nothing better than fresh tomatoes and cukes.   But until a community comes together, it is almost an impossibility to easily maintain a locavore lifestyle.  And I think that what I suggest is something that needs to be addressed.   A goal for this blog will be to document for others how this will be done.  Wish me luck…

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