Community supported agriculture, which delivers a box of locally grown, seasonal produce to customers, is available nationwide and has increased from fifty CSA’s in 1990 to over 1000 currently. And urbanites are getting creative with their own space, converting roofs, plots of concrete, and entire backyards into mini farms and greenhouses.
But still, eating local is, in fact, a challenge for most. Farmer’s markets are scarce compared with grocery stores and are sometimes more expensive. Eating entirely local means giving up things like coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and bananas—things most of us aren’t willing to do without. And whether or not local eating is as energy efficient as large-scale farming or could ever produce enough food to feed a nation is still up for debate.
Most importantly, eating local requires the consumer to care—about quality, about the environment, about home cooked meals, about supporting local communities. In our fast food nation, these are not priorities everyone shares.
Will eating local ever be mainstream? I’m not sure. But it is fun to incorporate aspects of the locavore lifestyle—picking wild blackberries, growing an herb or two, talking with farmers at the market—into your own.
