As food gains prominence in our nation's cultural dialogue, understanding how we eat can shine a light on all those dysfunctional aspects of our food system, from abuse of farmworkers to stubborn subsidies to chemical pollution. Which means that a series of buzzwords like locavore, seemingly trivial on their own, add up to some very different choices at the checkout counter.He also points out that the New Oxford American Dictionary has been prophetic in the past, choosing phone number in 1927 as well as other words that survived the test of time: fridge, pizza, nonstick, and Big Mac.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Brian Halweil on the word 'Locavore'
Brian Halweil, author of Eat Here, posted on Serious Eats about the implications of the word locavore being chosen as 2007 Word of the Year. From the article:
Hi Val,
ReplyDeleteI recently posted asking what bloggers' favorite or most notable news stories were, here, "A Look Back". Was it the locavore pick for you, or something closer to home ?
I specifically remember talking with a friend 15 years ago about people who like to buy, work and live totally local, and it seems like we had a different word for it then..., but maybe it was just a concept without a name.
ReplyDeleteIs locavore mostly about food, or all kinds of stuff like locally made household items?
I know when I first started writing about sustainable food systems about 8 years ago, very few people were doing this and thought that if you did, you were crazy. It's great to see it catching on but I am always afraid when things become popular, they get co-opted and changed. Hopefully that won't happen.
ReplyDeleteCitykin, it's sort of a personal decision for each individual. Some folks do try to source as much as possible as close by as possible, some only food. 'Locavore' itself implies food. There's a guy on our local foods group who tries to do everything by bicycle -- all transactions. Now -that's- localism!
ReplyDeleteIf you remember that there was a word you used, I'd love to hear it. I was thinking 'parochial' maybe. :D
city farm girl, I'm with you. It's interesting to talk to my dairy farmer about some of the folks who have recently bought herdshares now that raw milk is trendy. One woman is distressed that the milk tastes different in the winter. She asked my farmer, "Do you drink it?" LOL!