What is a Localvore?

What is a localvore, you might ask? Well,in the same vein that a carnivore is a being who eats meat, and a herbivore is one who eats plants, a localvore is a person who eats only locally-grown and produced food.

Localvores are people committed to eating and learning about foods grown within their food shed. Localvores recognize that there are mulitple benefits of eating food grown close to home. Recently in Vermont, localvores have pledged to eat food grown within 100 miles of their town over the course of one week or one month. This new Vermont tradition takes place in August when local food is most abundant, but localvores are also active throughout the year.

The informal localvore movement began with a group of women in San Francisco.  It took root in our region in 2005 when a group of Upper Valley women took the challenge, first in August, then again in January 2006. In addition to the POS Localvore Challenge in the summer of 2006, there were challenges conducted in August and September by two groups in Burlington, one each in Montpelier, Waitsfield, Middlbury, and White River Junction,VT, as well as in Keene, NH.

Why eat local? Local food is fresher, healthier and tastes better. By eating locally, we can support the local economy and decrease our ecological footprint. Our main goals are to pay attention to where our food comes from, to learn to be more self-sufficient and to work towards greater sustainability.

Use the links to the left to see what the POS Localvores have been up to.  And stay tuned for news about our next challenge and other POS Localvore events.

Links:
www.eatlocavt.org
Valley Food & Farm