By Nichole Hirsch Kuechle

Wondering if you are a locavore?  The word sounds a bit intimidating to me.  After all, it is a label, isn’t it?  It definitely has something to do with food as it rhymes a bit with omnivore.  I even consider myself a quasi-foodie and didn’t really get what it meant until now.  Thanks to Wiki online for the definition.

Local food (also regional food or food patriotism) or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place"^[1] and is considered to be a part of the broader sustainability movement. It is part of the concept of local purchasing and local economies, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. Those who prefer to eat locally grown/produced food sometimes call themselves locavores or localvores.^[2]

Ah, I see.  You are a locavore if you are care about the food you eat, but who wants to support the local economy and reap the health benefits of food that hasn’t traveled 1,000 miles from harvest to plate.  So, yes, I’m a locavore.  I’ve driven long distances for fresh milk in my past; I’ve held drop sites for farms at my house and would do it again if a great little co-op hadn’t just opened right up the street from my house!

Perhaps you, too, are a locavore and didn’t know it.  Here, let me ask you a couple questions:

1)      Do you prefer purchasing your food from farmers markets versus a grocery store (even if only in the summer?)

2)      Do you grow your own produce?

3)      Do you raise your own chickens for eggs and potentially meat?

4)      Do you spend time building relationships with friends and neighbors from whom you can purchase eggs, summer produce and maybe even a little honey?

I don’t know, but I think if you could answer yes to even one of these questions, you might be a locavore…at least just a little bit.  And it’s just the little bit part that’s really important.  It’s like the Russian proverb states, “if everyone gives a thread, the poor man will have a shirt.”  If everyone cares just a bit and plays one small part, our economy becomes stronger, our community more cohesive and our health soars, all because we care…just a little.