BRATTLEBORO — The term “locavore,” and the locavorism movement, are both comparatively recent. “Locavore” made its first appearance in 2005 and was designated the 2007 Word of the Year by the Oxford American Dictionary.
As a movement, locavorism advocates a preference for local food for a variety of reasons, including:
• Local food travels much less distance to market than typical fresh or processed grocery store foods, therefore using less fuel and generating fewer greenhouse gases.
• Because of the shorter distribution chains for local foods, less food is wasted in distribution, warehousing and merchandising.
• Local food is fresher and healthier, spending less time in transit from farm to plate, and therefore losing fewer nutrients and incurring less spoilage.
• Local food encourages diversification of local agriculture, which reduces the reliance on monoculture - single crops grown over a wide area to the detriment of soils.
• Local food encourages the consumption of organic foods and reduces reliance on artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
• Local foods build local economies by circulating food dollars locally and creating local jobs by supporting family farms and local food processing and distribution systems
• Local foods create more vibrant communities by connecting people with the farmers and food producers who bring them healthy local foods. As customers of CSAs and farmers markets have discovered, they are great places to meet and connect with friends as well as farmers!
• Local foods promote agritourism - farmers' markets and opportunities to visit farms and local food producers help draw tourists to a region.
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In short, local foods are more sustainable, healthier, better for the environment and economically positive than foods sourced from large-scale, globalized food systems.