Every few years the food industry finds new buzzwords that it can latch on to. Some, like “sous vide” or “tapas” stay in the realms of finer kitchens while others like “artisinal” and “organic” manage to penetrate the industry at many levels. For me, recently that term has been “local”
Local. It’s clear and concise. Local. It means it comes from nearby, maybe it brings to mind images of farmers toiling away on not so distant soils. Local. It hints at responsible production methods and smaller quantities. But lets face it, the idea of eating local foods isn’t new at all—people have been doing this since the beginning of time. Rural communities do it, when you buy from the farm stand near the cottage you’re doing it and chances are if you have a backyard garden you’ve probably been eating your own “local” tomatoes or herbs.
The 100-Mile Diet
…it’s hard not to feel like Hellmann’s is taking consumers for a ride by stretching the definition of local especially when the parent company is Unilever…
The first time I heard the term local used to describe a way of eating was while reading “The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating” by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon. This book chronicles a young couple out in B.C. that decide to only eat foods that come from within a 100-mile radius. The story follows the couple as they realize how difficult it is to eat locally and as they realize that they have to cut out some staples out of their diets. This book reminded me of my lack of connection with the food supply. I mean I had no clue where salt comes from much less whether or not there are local salt sources.
After reading “The 100-Mile Diet” the idea of “local” eating seemed to be everywhere. All of a sudden restaurant menus were touting local tasting menus or reminding me that their fish was caught from so-and-so lake or that their meat came from some local farm. Even the major supermarket chains got in on the act. Whereas we’d usually be reminded with generic “Foodland Ontario” signage, this year Loblaws introduced the “Grown Close to Home” campaign to really drive the point home. Even smaller shops such as Culinarium in Toronto that specialize in only local (in this case Ontario) have been springing up.
3 Comments
If this article is an example of what is to come as this site grows, I look forward to reading the future posts!
You make an excellent point – the general concept of buying local has many benefits, whether it’s better tasting food, or supporting the local economy, or saving money on a better product. However, once this turns into an industry and marketing tool, it defeats itself, as people will become immune to the allure of local once they realize that the term local is being abused and no longer means what it once did.
This was an excellent article and it started a great discussion about “buying local” between myself and the chef at Buster Rhino’s. I have started to see even more products that aren’t local but are being labelled as such. Buying local is one thing, buying Canadian is something different.
Great article! I like the concepts of the local and slow food movements but to me they’re completely different from the organic/gmo-free movement.
The former seem to refer to the act and enjoyment of eating, with local also having economic benefits but organic as well as gmo-free are more about the human health benefits/risks ie. ingesting chemical pesticides as well as the health/environmental benefits and risks that the land is exposed to.
Ideally organic and gmo-free would be the “understood” standards of the local and slow movements and ideally the mainstream would educate themselves and become aware of the profit-only motive of the big food corporations.