My favorite new word though is not exactly a word: localvore. For me, it just draws up this image of a big long-necked dinosaur lumbering around a farmers market with a reusable hemp shopping bag. Which I love.
A localvore is what I aspire to be. Vermontlocalvore.org offers some pretty compelling reasons for keeping your food dollars within the community. Dramatically reduced fossil fuel consumption, food-borne illnesses, and questionable preservatives and GMO's are enough to pull me away from conventional supermarkets whenever possible. Farmers markets also seem to be the only place to find truly free range, grass fed meat (a post on my obsession with this forthcoming).I have noticed one thing, however: eating locally is enormously difficult. Where I live there is a farmers market nearly every day of the week, but the selection seems sparse, repetitive (do we need 4 vendors selling apple butter?), and even worse: not very local. The southwest is hot, but there is just no way mangoes are in season here. When I finally pin down the vendors that are genuinely local and organic, all I have to choose from are red peppers, lemons, and a beeswax candle. What kind of meal is that?
My problem might be location-specific, but I'm inclined to think it's not. Is it a problem of demand- not enough people at these markets to justify the costs of attending? Or is it a problem of supply, as suggested by this NYT article. Maybe it's both.
