Coined in 2005 in San Francisco, Locavore:
So, anyone think they could do it? I live in New England and from June through late Oct I can go to Farmers markets for my produce. Meat markets at local farms where the chickens, pigs, cows are all organically fed…but in the Winter when we are in a depe freeze, I am having a hard time with the produce. I almost have to go to the super to get it. Unless I want to eat pine needles and rhododendron fronds 
Sure, with enough planning.
If you canned or froze veggies during the growing season, you could have most any produce during the winter (except things like lettuce, which could be grown inside).
Many parts are edible!
Seems to me that anyone living significantly N of the frost belt would need to rely on canning or preserves, or greenhouses. Is canning consistent with the definition’s use of “fresh?”
Other than that, should be able to do a pretty good job in Chicagoland. Plenty of varied farms/orchards stretching up into Wisconsin and Michigan. Salmon from Lake Mich, and plenty of venison to supplement farmed animals. And several local microbreweries!
Would have to learn to do without citrus.
One question - would the geographic restriction apply to spices as well?
Only if I get to travel everywhere and try everything local to other places that way.
I do prefer to source my everyday food from as local suppliers as possible - and I don’t like the increasing difficulty in finding food that hasn’t been flown in all over the world, that could have been produced right here, but oranges and mangoes won’t grow here very easily.
If freezing vegetables doesn’t disqualify you, I think I could handle it.
I probably live in one of the better places to do this. Within 100 miles, you can find grow zones 5a through 7b. We’ve got the Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore within 50 miles. I’m pretty sure I can get everything except tropical fruits/vegetables.
Barbara Kingsolver and her family give it a shot for a year in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is an interesting, if preachy, read. My own family has made an effort to eat more local foods. During farmers’ market season, we got produce, bread, cheese, and meat from local farmers, but things like pasta, rice, etc., were national brands. Now that we’re out of that season, I try to not buy much fresh produce that has to be shipped very far very quickly. Instead, we’re eating a lot of dried, canned, and frozen fruit (applesauce, raisins and so forth) and frozen veggies. Root veggies, apples, and pears can still be found fresh from more or less local sources. On the other hand, I am still buying bananas for my toddler and there’s a bit too much Kraft mac-n-cheese around here, so we could be doing better.
Hey, our ancestors did just fine making it through the winter with the fruits and veggies they’d canned, dried and cellared. Might be a bit tougher nowadays, but I’m sure you’ll still be able to find some locally grown apples, potatoes, yams, squash and various root veg to carry you through to spring in somewhat reasonable shape. Better learn to love rutabaga. 
Personally, I believe that the concept of the 100-mile diet is a luxury few can afford outside of California. It’s not so hard to eat local when you get fresh produce, seafood and meat year-round.
I read her book and with a recommendation from the same woman who showed me that book, read the Omnivore’s Dilema by Michael Pollan. Sometimes I’d rather take the Ignorance is Bliss method than actually work to eat good things, but in the end I try my best to eat the best things I can all year round.
I don’t think spices should be included in this.
Why not? If you are going to be a locavore, then you have to go all the way.
Personally, I think the whole thing is silly. People haven’t been locavores since the Iron Age. That’s part of what civilization is. I’ll grant you, in-season produce tastes better than stuff shipped in from Chile, but if I want something out of season, that’s my choice. If I want a banana, I’ll bloody well buy one.
Here is a book where one family does it.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life : Barbara Kingsolver
Eliot Coleman ( farmer, author) grows greens all year round in Maine.
I often amuse myself by thinking how to go about this. We already have chickens, rabbits, a large garden, fruit trees, and lots of room to expand it. Today we still have proably 50lbs of home grown potatoes and more winter squash in storage. I buy local grown 50lb bags of corn for $5 bag. I have seen wheat growing in the area (NE Pa), so I could get local wheat for flour. So theoretically if I can & freeze vegetables in the summer, grow more potatoes and squash, plant fresh greens year round, (under a hoop house), and have meat & eggs all year round. But not if I have to work full time in the summer and there just is no way I could convince my DW & teenagers to even try it.
BZ
“with the argument that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better.”
Who are they arguing with? Everyone knows that already.
The choice isn’t between fresh local goods and stale crap imported from miles away. For those of us who don’t live in California, the choice is between imported or nothing. I don’t like being preached to by those who have an abundance of choice when I do not. Limiting my diet to locally produced only makes for a crappy winter diet.
I think this is another example in the long list of ideas that have some merit, but have been overextended.
An awareness of “eating local” can lead to supporting small farms/food producers, either through farmers’ markets, co-ops, or even subscriptions to individual farms. Which - in my mind - can be a good thing for many reasons.
Eating locally and reducing or eliminating meat are two of the easiest and most rewarding ways to do your part in reducing greenhouse gases. Supporting local farms also helps preserve green space in your part of the world, and goes a long way towards the sustainablility of your region. Even here in Michigan, or Ontario, with some planning and diet adjustment, one can eat local pretty much year round.
Not that I’ve done so. We’ve had a CSA for the past few years, but haven’t started on the canning/freezing necessary for the winter. But, we are working towards it.
Check out Local Harvest for resources in your area.
Absolutely. People didn’t settle in Chicago for nothing - they did it because there’s this huge body of water here that makes for a great trade route! I’m not sure anyone would have settled in Ontario without trade being possible. As **silenus **pointed out, trade = not eating only local stuff.
I try to buy “local”, (meaning 150 miles or so - 50 miles of where I live is still pretty much residential in all directions) but it doesn’t always happen. I could, but only if given a larger food budget than I have.
And there’s the rub - our ancestors literally worked to put food on the table. Food made up a much larger portion of the family’s energy budget, if not actual cash. They didn’t have money to spend on new plates, a new bedspread for the kids every couple of years, cable, internet, telephone… If I cut out all the types of spending that make us vaguely “normal”, then I probably could afford to eat all local all the time (although not all fresh, due to that pesky winter thing). But those aren’t sacrifices I’m willing to make for a vague, unproven and likely small increase in health and lifespan.
I didn’t know what a locavore was until I entered this thread. When I first saw the term in the thread title, I thought it meant “loca” as in crazy, and the first guy that popped into my mind was Antony John of the Manic Organic, or as I like to call him “The Canadian Kramer”. So, I guess it was appropriate, as I believe he might be Canada’s premiere locavore proponent, but the term reminded me of him for entirely different reasons. I love the guys show, and I believe he farms year round on his organic farm up there near you.
But to answer, the Op. I think I could become a locavore, but why would I make life even more difficult and expensve for myself.
Also The 100 Mile Diet, which I liked better than Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. It was originally a blog, and it’s about two Vancouverites who spent a year eating locally, with (I think) no cheating.
I don’t think it’s un-doable (north Texas), but it would definitely be a major adjustment in many ways, almost to the point of being its own career, due to the relative inconvenience and/or unavailability of local products.
And… really, I’m pretty sure they don’t grow hops or barley nearby, so this is really a dumb concept as far as I’m concerned!
Actually, I consider large-scale irrigation just as unnatural as importing, so take that away, and those California nutbags would just be eating cactus or something.
They’re from the Bay Area, so pine cones and acorns would be more like it.