A locavore, which was the Oxford Word of the Year 2007, is someone who tries to eat only locally-grown food. The word was coined in 2005 by a group of four women in San Francisco who come up with the idea of only eating food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. Since then, quite a few similar groups have emerged in other areas.
Locavores buy food from farmers’ markets, or grow or pick their own food, and argue that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. They also tend to avoid buying food for supermarkets because they argue that transporting food over long distances is wasteful of energy and produces much pollution.
There’s more information at: www.locavores.com
I’m quite familiar with this concept since the college I attended, Middlebury College, tries to buy local food as much as possible for its dining halls. I never knew there was a word for this practice though!
Also, I wanted to give your blog a thumbs up. I’m a language lover, too, and enjoy reading all your language-related posts. Keep up the good work!
Robbie
http://www.learnthatlanguagenow.com/
“They also tend to avoid buying food for supermarkets because they argue that transporting food over long distances is wasteful of energy and produces much pollution.”
There are some problems with that: (1) Farmers in our climate use a lot of fuel and energy to grow food that grows naturally in warmer parts of the world; (2) supermarket shoppers can buy all they need at one place but buying from markets and farmers may necessitate a number of round trips; (3) sometimes it’s better to give the money to poor farmers in the Third World who need the money more than our local farmers.
Good word by the way. One of the coolest words I came across when I was doing my final year uni. project on green food marketing and distribution was ‘freegan’, a person who only eats food that’s ‘free’. Freegans may also be called: ‘garbage-bin shoppers’.
One of the best books I have read on Ethical and Conscientious Food Consumerism is: “The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter”. I can’t recommend it enough.
@ Colm
Freegans can get pretty good food. Here in America, tons and tons of fresh food is wasted by grocery stores just because they are past the “sell by” date. Even though they eat from garbage bins, they don’t get any more sick than the average person.
@ AR
I know, did I say anywhere that they get sick or eat worse than anyone else?
@ Colm
No. I was merely adding to what you had said about freegans because those who may have never heard of the practice may initially find it revolting.