"Eat local" consumerism

- Andrea Hermanson

Our focus this quarter on indigenous lococentric worldviews has challenged me to look at the current consumer trend to “eat local” in a new light—and has reminded me of its more humble origins. When I talk to my parents, who are farmers, about CSA programs, farmers markets, or organic gardening, they chuckle and wistfully reference the “olden days.” While mainly a pastime now, my mom still cans and freezes produce from her garden every summer, and she forever produced in me the longing for the real, juicy, mouth-watering tomato. In the "olden days," however, it was less out of principle than out of habit and economic necessity. When industrial agriculture came to town with cheap, sliced bread and ready-to-drink milk, my parents were happy to make the transition from early morning bread making and cow milking to store-bought products. Knowing what we know today about the food system, I’m not sure they would have been so quick to jump on the bandwagon.


I like to imagine that today’s consumer movement to eat local is moving towards a more placed-based epistemology concerning food as it positions place and the reciprocal relationship of people to the land as central to healthy, resilient communities—and condemns industrial agriculture’s effects on our bodies and minds. However, an epistemological shift requires more radical steps than going to the farmers market and deciding to sign up on eatlocalchallenge.com. There is clearly a profound spiritual connection to place for truly lococentric cultures that produces more sustainable, humane ways of living through not only food-buying habits, but through social, political, and cultural systems of belief and practice. This multi-layered and scared link was embodied in Delbert Miller visit and presence in class and Bruce Miller in the film “Teachings of the Tree People.” While I think it is clear that the consumer movement is not exactly spiritual, it is one step in the right direction in my view. Here are two interesting websites that represent this movement (…and highlight a strange competitiveness, as though the only way you can change a practice is through aggressive, sweeping action):

http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/

http://100milediet.org/