Think Globally, Eat Locally - Becoming A Locavore

Jackie is a good friend to the Glitter Bitches and a budding author to boot, so she jumped at the chance to spread some of her musings to the masses here at Modern Rosies. She is a huge wealth of information in many arenas, and we look forward to many posts from her in the future!


Locavore. Say it out loud. Feel it roll off your tongue. It’s newer, like so many of the buzzwords you hear today are. The philosophy is ages old, though. It is the idea that one can exist solely on the diet that changes with the seasonally available foods in the region.

It’s more than just a philosophy these days, though. The socioeconomic and anthropological data piling in has shown that it also stimulates local economy, builds tighter communities, reduces crime, and helps our children to grow to be conscientious little people.

"All members of our society, irrespective of their socio-economic status, should have access to good quality produce." - Maritza Wellington Owens

I sat the other day at one of my seven local farmer’s markets and just observed. It continually leaves me awestruck to see the diversity in everything from the vendors to the customers to the produce and goods themselves. It’s in a constant state of metamorphosis as the seasons change, the students change, the farmers change, and the venues themselves change.

Farmers' Market in urban Chicago

Farmers markets are an anthropological goldmine. A prosperous people is a well-fed people. That is a lesson history has taught us over and over again, from the middens still being found two miles from my house to the middens found near King Solomon’s Temple Mount.

Biosocially speaking, the rediscovery of Farmer’s Markets and local produce is moving about in pandemic proportions, possibly fueled by the advent and establishment of social networking that is available to everyone, not just the wealthy and pretentious.

Socioeconomically, we have seen a similar shift across all of the socioeconomic classes. Inner city demographics are creating community gardens where the bounty is divided between the families contributing time and energy and local markets that help fund the next season’s re-planting, and the creation of more gardens.

In rural areas, the conspicuous lack of outsourcing for produce and product has created pockets of informal economy, fueled with the supply and demand of neighbors for neighbors, by neighbors. (Their farmed or produced goods, that is. Not the neighbors themselves. That would be cannibalism, and possibly signify an oncoming zombie plague.)

Affluent communities are moving AWAY from products marketed as gourmet, and realizing that the ingredients make the food, not the commercials. Community farmers can set up at markets located in areas primarily populated by mid to upper middle class and above, and feel confident that they will return home at the end of the day not with a vehicle full of produce (or meat, or honey, or jams/jellies/home canned goods, or baked goods, or fresh milks and dairy products, etc.) but rather a hefty deposit. Everyone involved can go home feeling satisfied on so many more levels than just a biological need for food.

London Community Gardens
(Image: Capital Growth)

Now, when explained in these ways, doesn’t it just make more sense? Or rather, it makes more cents!! The economic impacts tumble over into an infinite number of scenarios. Less cross-country or international transportation means less need for crude oil. Smaller scale farming means less of a demand for GMO’s that can be grown in bulk with resistance to pests that can be eradicated by some simple attention, care and forethought by the small farmer. Oh, but that takes away jobs, you say! NAY! If every industry farm was re-organized into a co-op of family farms, that would ensure that the number of employment opportunities remained, and may even open up more seasonal help positions.

On a biological level, eating seasonally has been shown in some studies to be a promising way to counteract our country’s war with obesity. I’ll avoid putting my lab coat on here, but will say this: Everything from buying the products to eating them has an impact on the human body. There’s vitamin D synthesis from walking the market in the sun. There is a release of neurochemicals and neurotransmitters, or “happy juice,” in the brain when you see a bright red natural tomato or taste a sweet melon straight from the vine. There is the nutritional value of your purchases themselves.

Say it again, my friends. Locavore. Actually, don’t just say it. Try it! visit www.localharvest.org to find a farmer’s market near you, or to find other means of acquiring seasonal and local products. I can guarantee you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Jackie Monck hails from Florida where she is busy raising two kiddos, and runs MMC Designs, Farm and Kennels. You can also find her on Facebook.