When Important Things go Pop!

As you know, we here at RFC are all about eating fresh, local and organic foods. I am no purist ( I'm just not there yet), but the term most often used to describe those of us who attempt to eat as local as possible is Locavore. This word got a whole lot of free press this past December when The New Oxford American Dictionary named it their word of the year. As there site explains this word was first coined by four women in the San Francisco Bay area who first challanged the Bay area community in August of 2005 to eat as much as possible sourced within a 100 mile radius of their homes. Since then, the movement has expanded all across the country and beyond, combining with the slow food movement and others.

All publicity may be good publicity, but a recent article in a popular style and shopping magazine may have done a real disservice to the locavore cause. I am all about some pop culture. Well, that's true of some of its many forms. I love a lot of pop music, T.V. and a light hearted commercial rag from time to time. The problem with pop culture is that it glorifies the trival and trivializes all things important. This can be a problem when a lesser known idea or movement is thrust into the pop culure realm.

The article entitled "Eating Locally for Two Weeks," provides some good information to a readership that may not be likely to seek it out on their own. The author really comes accross as though she is genuinely trying to support an eco-friendly movement. Sadly however, the format and context of the piece inside a magazine usally dedicated to the latest in coffee mugs and lighting fixtures, leads the author to obscure or omit any understanding of the fundamental values behind this movement.

Forget that this article is published in the March issue and describes the author at her local up state New York farmers market purchasing heirloom tomatos and "two beautiful eggplants". My real beef is that the author complains that after her first local shoping experience she had spent $60 for only two days provisions. She later complains that in just 10 short days she had spent $325 on groceries (when usually she was only spending $200 before) and put 100 extra miles on her car. What the heck is she buying and where on earth has she been going? I understand that we're talking NY prices, but rather than make this sort of contextual observation, the author states that this "is definitely not a 'we-the-people' movement."

To add insult to injury, she never provides a real working definiting of "locavore", or references for readers to find out more. Instead, she says that from what she can tell "locavores don't have office jobs-they seem to be able to spend all of their time foraging." Alas, I can't do that (nor can most of the country)." That sort of minimizing and narrow- sighted commentary can only hurt when provided for the consumption of a readership who may very well look no further for information on a topic they little understood before reading the author's frivolous and discouraging piece.

I can tell you that in the peak of late summer/ early fall (when the article must have been written), my husband and I always managed to spend less or equal the amount of money we had been spending shopping "conventinally." On average, we would spend $45 -$50 at the market and about the same at the grocery store. It got to the point where some weeks I didn't even have to go to the store, and others my bill would only be about $30. Other weeks, (depending on purchases of jumbo cans of olive oil or laundry soap), were higher. Point is, three meals a day, for seven days, for two people, could range anywhere from $80-$135 per week. Not everything we ate was local, but most of it was.

On the Oxford American Dictionary blog site, an editor for the dictionary is quoted as saying the word Locavore was selected in part because it is "significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way." Well put. I have said that I am no purist when it comes to local eating. I get as much as I can from the markets, local farms and my own garden. Time is always a constraint, however I have enjoyed every moment of the whole 'eating local' experience. I have met dozens of wonderful people I never would have met, made new friends, and tried ( and loved) loads of new foods I never would have before. I have learned more about my food, my health, my surroundings and community, and myself in last several months than I ever thought possible from simply having fun and eating well. And for what it's worth, I got all this goodness on a very tight budget.