Is Locavorism Just a Fad? Methinks Not

It has been around for awhile, and it is not dieing out anytime soon. There is wide appeal here. we have

1) carbon foot print: with out the long transportation needs this food is more earth friendly

2) Safety: we trust people more the closer they are to us, in connection and distant. For darn sure it does not come from China

3) economic self interest: we buy from locals, who will re-spend it locally, perhaps benefiting us personally but for sure our friends, family and neighbors

4) Fresh: thanks to eliminating the long transit

5) Generally less corporate: giving the corporate class a "**** you" by avoiding them through dealing with local producers who sell direct feels very good.

6) connection to the land: when we buy local we often know exactly where the food was produced, something that was generally lost generations ago as food became mass producted and later corporatized.

7) control: with so much of what goes on around us out of control (and I'd say with the civilization dieing) we crave what control we can muster of our lives. It feels very good to be in control of which supplier gets our money, of where our money goes. It is a much different feeling than is handing money to Walmart or Safeway.

The downside is the additional cost in both money and time, which is significant. As we see with organic however consumers are willing to trade money and time for the benefits of local...even a devastating recession has not convinced significant numbers of consumers to abandon paying more for local or organic.

I'm in Ohio, so can be a locavore without too much problem. Not everyone has my options though.

I'm curious, what problems does bartering with people who grow something you want that is far away solve?

This came up in another thread a while back, and both FM and i pointed out that you can feed New York city with the "hundred mile diet." Of course, it's application is limited. People in New York are still going to want bananas, cane sugar, coffee and a host of other products which cannot be grown within a hundred miles of the city. And that's true of Ohio as much as it is of New York.

So, to answer the titular question, it may or may not be a fad, but if it is pursued, it is unrealistic to expect that everything people are going to want can be provided locally.

I basically like the idea of locovorism and do it when I can -- not militant about it but if I have a choice, I choose the closer one. In Ohio, I have a lot of options for stuff that was grown and/or made nearby. Not everything, though.

I don't drink coffee and can certainly live without bananas; I'd want sugar but there are other ways to get it than cane sugar. But I'm not at the point where I'd do without those things on principle.

Well, beet sugar just don't stack up to cane sugar, and it's not as efficient, either. But although we can't get cane sugar within a hundred miles, we can still get it from the United States.