Locavore - Eating Locally for Personal and Planetary Health

The precursor to the word locavore, localvore, was coined in 2005 on World Environment Day by Jessica Prentice. Like the words carnivore, omnivore, and herbivore, this term was created to distinguish a type of eating that included only foods grown and produced within a 100 mile radius.

While most of us will not eat all of our food locally, there is tremendous benefits through incorporating a diet that includes many local foods and studying the ideas being shared by locavores.

Connecting to our Ecoregion

Each one of us lives in a particular ecoregion with incredible amounts of biodiversity. An ecoregion, also known as a bioregion, is defined as a large area of land or water that contains a characteristic, geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities and species (1).

How many of us are aware of the defining characteristics of our local ecoregion? Do we know the rivers, flora, and fauna? Have we explored the majestic mountain trails or forests?

Our pre-civilized wild eco-centric ancestors were locavores and had intimate knowledge about the natural landscape that surrounded them, which gave them a feeling of belonging and peace.

In our modern times, the expansion of the city, and the mentality contained within it, has led most people to be completely unaware of anything outside of the city. This may be one of the defining characteristics of a society out of touch with reality. We often no longer have the joyous and supportive feeling of being connected to the Earth and our local ecoregion.

But things are changing and new modes of living are underway. Are we ready to create the eco-revolution? My intuition says yes.

And there is no need to feel like we have to give up all the experiences, insights, and technology we have gained over the years and revert to living exactly like our ancestors did. However, there is much to be learned by looking into our past and applying what we can into our modern context. By doing this we can reclaim our natural birthright of being connected to our local ecoregion and the Earth as a whole.

Getting in Touch with Local Plants

In almost every habitable ecoregion of the Earth there is an abundance of edible plants. One of the first steps we can make to get in touch with this is to buy a book that describes the local edible plants or to go to a class. Often a herbal teacher or school in your region will know about edible plants.

Once we have an awareness of what the plants look like then we can go exploring in our local ecoregion and harvest a variety of interesting and delicious plants. The ecoregion I live within in northern California has an incredible array of wild edible plants such as dandelion greens, nettles, berries, grasses, and many others.

The Gathering Begins

By learning about and then going out and gathering the wild, organic, edible plants in your ecoregion, you can begin to gain an intimate connection to your ecoregion and participate in the locavore movement.

Another way of eating locally and feeing the beneficial affects on our being of doing this, is to buy food from farmers markets. Farmers at these markets have grown food within the local ecoregion, therefore, if we buy food from them we get in touch with the foods that can grow in our area.

There is a profound joy that comes when supporting local farmers and eating the fresh produce that they share with us. Farmers markets often have edible plants that were picked within a few days, sometimes the same day that you purchase them.

Produce at supermarkets, while still wonderful, does not have the same freshness or taste. And on the other end of the spectrum we have foods in boxes and cans with many preservatives in them so that that they can sit on a shelf for almost two years!

Growing Your Own Food

A third method of eating locally is to grow your own food. This process is so powerful in consciousness and health transformation that it deserves its own discussion, which is covered in one of my other articles.

The Big Picture

The overall picture that is being described here is that by eating edible plants in our local ecoregion, through wild foraging, farmers markets, and home gardening, we can expand our awareness outside of the artificial confines of the city mentality, which has created psychic and physical boundaries between our being and the Earth.

If we wish to help serve our health and that of the living planet it is vital that we gain a deeper connection to our natural surroundings, and eating locally like a locavore is a powerful means of doing this.

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