Have you ever heard of the 100-mile diet? Or maybe read about the benefits of eating locally grown foods? You’re not alone. Trying our best to buy from local farmers markets not only benefits the environment, but also our health.
Less travel time between the farm and you means reduced emissions, and fresher food. Apparently, over the last year or so there has been a huge serge in what’s known as the Locavore movement. So much so that the New Oxford American Dictionary has recently chosen Locavore as it’s word of the year. Here’s an excerpt from their biggest annual announcement.
The past year saw the popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives.
The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation.
The word locavore shows how food-lovers can enjoy what they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the environment, said Ben Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. Its significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way. Locavore was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius.
The Oxford group seems to be continuing an environmentally conscious trend this year. Last years word of the year was Carbon-Neutral. Yeah for the earth friendly awareness!
