The first time I saw someone described as a Locavore while reading a blog post, I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. I am perpetually curious about pretty much any and all things, and what usually starts as reading one blogger's post ends up to be this chain of events linking me from one blog to the next. Blog-hopping?
So, the search was on to learn what a Locavore really is beyond what can be gleaned from the two parts of the actual word itself. What my search revealed first was that apparently I was behind the times, because it appears that locavore was coined by four ladies in the San Francisco area way back in '05.
They had issued a challenge to themselves and everyone in their area to eat local for 1 month. Hence the term locavore....someone who determines what area they consider local and try to stay within those bounds for as much food as possible. The reasons behind the concept are many and these ladies succinctly summed it up in part of the intro of their blog at Locavores.com as "important politically, environmentally, economically and healthfully". Its no wonder the idea has spread to other areas over time and the concept seems to be growing in popularity.
The Locavore concept actually makes complete sense, but is so foreign to the instant gratification way of life that has become THE way of life for most. I prefer to live my life my way and only my way and this looks suspiciously like a bandwagon, but it honestly got my attention.
Curiouser and curiouser....I continued on my quest for answers and stumbled across an interesting article on the PBS website titled "10 Steps to Becoming a Locavore". Definitely food for thought!
I grow quite a bit of vegetables for our family and friends, buy free-range eggs, and support the local farmers market when I need too. However, a quick search at LocalHarvest for local markets made me realize that what I've been doing is barely a drop in the bucket as far as supporting local producers. There is a whole world of local farms right under my nose producing beef, poultry, pork as well as vegetables, wool, cheese, milk...right down to Texas grown olives! How cool is that!











