There’s a whole movement of localism that goes beyond just food … it’s shopping at locally own shops rather than chains, local restaurants instead of chains, getting involved in local civic groups and politics, etc.

If all you’re doing is eating locally grown food, you’re only tackling half the problem.

Personally I think it should be broadened into a more active protectionist policy and then evolve into a full racist ideology….

Either you do all your shopping at a grocery co-op like Rainbow in SF or you live in the California Central Valley (where some huge % of the country’s produce is grown) or you are totally spewing wrong facts here Grocery stores are increasingly sourcing their goods from mass-market producers.

Even so-called Organic groceries like Whole foods are more likely to source their produce from mainstream distributors. If you buy mesclun mix at Whole Foods, it doesn’t matter if you’re in SF or Boston or Florida, it’s coming from Earthbound Farm’s operations in Salinas or Arizona depending on the season. Most apples here at Whole Foods Boston are sourced from Washington, and some even from New Zealand. We have a couple of hardy & tasty local varieties of Apples that we can get from Whole Foods through about January, but beyond that, all the apples are coming from Wash/NZ. That’s irrespective of whether they’re organic or conventionally grown.

A good place to start reading about this kind of stuff is Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, which takes a very rationalist, journalistic approach to organic vs. locally grown vs. industrially produced food.

One of the other key reasons that people turn loca for locavorism is to do their part to reduce their carbon footprint, unnecessary packaging, and general waste. Most of our food travels over 1,500 miles to get from its point of origin to our stomachs. With processed foods, who knows, its origins can come from multiple locations to travel to some factory to get processed and packaged, then shipped worldwide again. All this adds up to a lot of waste.

We get a nice box of “in season” fruits and vegetables delivered from a nearby farm to our doorstep every week, and love it. The farmers markets are another great way to meet the people who are actually producing our food, most often organic, and feel a sense of community that has been lost with this generation.

Add in the fact that buying local stimulates the economy in your area (not the economy of China) and you have a great recipe for combating the recession as well.

Would love a definition of ‘bad’ in this case, or is this just your chosen moral judgment?

Holly M Wagner MD
MedixNet.info

i guess i’m not seeing how this application is useful.