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Locavore
Date:
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 Sarah Elton, Locavore: From Farmer’s Fields to Rooftop Gardens – How Canadians are
Changing the Way We Eat (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2010)
In our fragmented and pluralistic cultures a challenge to Christians in the West is how
to contribute to a healthy commons which will facilitate the flourishing of all citizens.
One way to do this is to support best practice in the production of food. The pristine
presentation of food in our supermarkets is designed to make us oblivious of where our
food has come from and how it was produced. “The processed foods in our modern
supermarket are an amalgam of ingredients sourced on the global marketplace, which
means that I, as a consumer, can’t know where each of the components was grown, how
they were processed and what kind of journey they’ve taken from the field all the long
way to my plate.” (5) Much of corporate agribusiness is not pretty: abuse of animals and
land abounds and often what we buy is anything but local.
What will it take to wake us up in this area? For Sarah Elton it took buying a cookie in
Toronto for her daughter and getting home only to discover that the cookie was … made
in China! As she notes “China is producing more and more of our food.” (p.3) The fact
that we are importing and selling cookies made in China is a powerful symbol of just how
crazy and distorted food production has become.
This event catalyzed change in Sarah’s life and led her to become a “locavore.” The
mindset of the locavore is that “if you can grow it here, I won’t buy it from there.” (6)
Locavore is a fruit of that change in Sarah’s life: it describes how urbanites, farmers,
gardeners and chefs across Canada are developing a new local food order that is
sustainable and able to feed us all. To write this book Sarah traveled around Canada and
a fun part of the book – if you live in Canada – is to check out what is going on in your
area and province.
The good news is that local food markets, small, health farms and local food restaurants
are alive and developing across Canada. Here in Hamilton there are multiple local
markets within easy reach. A great local food restaurant in Caledonia is the Twisted
Lemon. We do not have to start from scratch; all we need to do is leap on board and
support this growing movement, while saying no to the destructive practices of corporate
agribusiness. And we can start today. Of course, the crucial question is, “Will we?”
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