Locavore Update

This article from the NYT gives a great overview of the local, sustainable foods movement. Like many movements, it started as something small and authentic. But now bigger corporations are getting in on the game.

“You know the locavore phenomenon is having an impact when the corporations begin co-opting it,” Ms. Prentice said. “Everyone should know where things are processed. The ‘where’ question is really important.”

As the movement has grown in popularity, it has made some compromises along the way:

Other companies are embracing the term “local” in their own ways. Foster Farms, a $1 billion company that is the largest producer of poultry products on the West Coast, markets its fresh chicken and turkey as “locally grown” because it contracts with hundreds of local growers in the states where it operates.

Some producers are stretching local to mean locale, emphasizing the geographic origin of their food. Dairy products from California, oranges from Florida and almost anything made in Vermont are getting special attention from marketers. Kraft is trying to figure out whether people in Wisconsin will buy more pickles if they know the cucumbers that go into a jar of Claussen’s are grown there.

For some though, even foods that really are grown locally are not local enough. No, they need their food to come from their backyards. Check out this piece from the Kansas City Star about the "urban chicken" movement for more on this phenomenon.