Livin’ la Vida Locavore
With all the choices we have today, thousands of products in our supermarkets, you might ask why would someone want to live as a locavore?
First, let’s define locavore. There is some debate as to what qualifies as locavore behavior. Some would say shopping locally. Ok, that’s a start. Others point to eating at restaurants that serve locally grown, seasonal foods. I’ll agree with that. How about shopping at farmers’ markets, keeping backyard chickens for eggs, and growing a garden for food? Yes, yes, and yes! I would say we all need to find our own degree of “locavoreness” with which we are comfortable.
So back to the why. Ask yourself this: Do I want to eat or feed my family tomatoes picked green then ripened with ethylene gas? Or would I prefer locally greenhouse grown (in winter) tomatoes ripened by nature? Do I want to wonder if my next meal contains a dangerous strain of bacteria that could take weeks for the CDC to trace back to the source? Or would I prefer to know my salad greens came from a farm I know the name of in upstate NY? Do I care if my meatloaf was once a cow that was kept in deplorable, 
filthy conditions, killed unmercifully then combined with meat from a hundred other cows? Or would I prefer to know that the cow in my dinner lived a good life, grazed in a pasture as nature intended, then was slaughtered humanely in a small, clean facility?
Now I don’t recommend boycotting your area supermarket, but I would advocate asking the manager if the store carries local products, and if he/she says no, ask why not. I shop in area markets, mostly for things I can’t get at the farmers’ market on Saturday, or things I don’t grow in my garden. Will I buy produce imported from another country? Sometimes. My family likes bananas. I don’t know of a local grower, so I buy them at the supermarket. I like to use lemons and limes in my sauces when I cook. Not many NY citrus growers…does that mean I’m not a locavore? I don’t think so. I try my best to support area farmers and producers by promoting and practicing local, seasonal eating. I try my best to shop at mom & pop stores before going to the big box places. Every year my family plants a bigger garden with a variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs. My neighbors don’t garden and perhaps shop at “the big W” store all the time. Does that mean they’re not locavores? Not necessarily. Perhaps they only hire local business people to mow their lawn or paint their house.
I think we’re all locavores to some degree. Maybe we could do just one more thing to raise our locavore score. Think about it before you bite into your next tomato or buy that ground meat for your dinner…
Eat Westchester!
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.