Lazy Locavores

The NY Times ran this article on "lazy locavores"; people who want to eat as locally as possible, without much (or any) effort. People in larger cities are now hiring people to grow and tend organic gardens in their back yards, or having locally grown produce boxes delivered to their cubicles, or having the chefs at their summer homes use only local ingredients. Yeah, just the other day I was telling our chef that I wanted him to seek out local caviar...

But seriously, here in the real world, I don't think it requires that much effort to make local food choices. And I say this knowing that I come from a place of extreme privilege in that my husband and I are middle class, and I have the luxury of staying home with my children for now and that gives me more time to prepare food than normal. Actually, it's only a little more time than I had when I was living with my husband and still working outside the home, but a lot more time than I had as a single working mother. However, eating locally can be integrated into most people's lifestyles, at least in some way. Farmer's Markets are all over Louisville these days, and what could be easier than a CSA? I will say that I would like to see more CSA's follow the model of Grasshopper's and allow people to split their share fee into several payments. $400 is a big outlay at once, and many, many people don't have that.

This isn't a contest, seeing who can eat the most local food. It's a principle of healthy eating and stewarding the planet that people can integrate into their daily lives in whatever ways they are able. We can't all grow our own big gardens like Barbara Kingsolver. We can't all instruct our personal chefs to buy local ingredients. But we can all do what works for us, and that's what I'd like to encourage people to strive for.

This line from the NY Times article caught my eye: “It’s a very savvy crowd that understands how all the pieces of sustainable farming and nutrition fit together,” At first, it just stroked my ego about how savvy I am. :) But I really don't agree with the statement, because it reeks of elitism. You don't have to know all about sustainable agriculture and carbon emissions and nutritional values of organic vs. conventional food to make the choice to eat local. Many people do it because, duh, it tastes better and just makes intuitive sense to eat the food that grows in your region seasonally. It just feels right to eat more like our great-grandparents did, doesn't it? It doesn't seem normal to me anymore to eat bananas in Kentucky. And I won't do it, no matter how much I love banana splits. And here's the thing, simply choosing not to eat bananas is making a local foods choice. And it didn't cost me a dime ...