Local Food Movements

In the mid 2000’s several food-related movements sprang up, all with a similar message: food grown or produced close to home is fresher, safer, more nutritious and better for the environment. Some of these movements include:

Locavore - someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles. The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to produce their own food, with the argument that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locally grown food is an environmentally friendly means of obtaining food, since supermarkets that import their food use more fossil fuels and non-renewable resources. The word locavore, coined in 2005 was chosen by the New Oxford American Dictionary as the word of the year 2007.

Slow Food - movement founded in Italy to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. The Slow Food movement boasts 85,000 (paying) members in 132 countries.
www.slowfood.com

100 Mile Diet - Starting in 2005, 2 Canadians in BC restricted their diet to foods grown within 100 miles of their residence. Their experiences were published in an online magazine, and later in a book. The concept received international media attention and 100-mile themed meals have become popular in North America.
www.100milediet.org

Low Carbon Diet - refers to making choices about eating that reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe) as a response to estimates that the U.S. food system is responsible for at least 20 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases. Major tenets of a low carbon diet include eating less meat and cheese, eating food grown locally and seasonally, eating less processed and packaged foods and reducing waste from food by proper portion size, recycling or composting.

If you follow one of these movements, or just choose locally grown foods for personal reasons, you will find the resources you need here are Fresh Radius.