Comments on: Is Locavorism Really Elitist?

By: Multnomah County Food for All!

Multnomah County Food for All! — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:55:15 +0000

[...] the excellent Sam Fromartz wrote on his blog and on Civil Eats in response to McWilliams’ claims. He responds: “But try as I did to find the [...]

By: Melissa Danielle

Melissa Danielle — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:08:01 +0000

It is my understanding and direct experience that the terms “locavore”, “food justice” and “food sovereignty” all fall within the “sustainable food” movement.

With regards to food justice/sovereignty, those terms are used specifically to address issues of food access and food insecurity. The locavore side is more specific to taste, pleasure, principle – eating locally sourced/produced foods.

While food justice is inclusive of locally-sourced and produced foods, locavores can and do exist separately from issues of food insecurity, if they so choose.

“Locavore” is not exclusive to high-income (and white) communities, but I do agree that whomever coins the term, owns the term. Plenty of middle and low-income people support and maintain a locavore philosophy.

Their stories just don’t seem to be as interesting.

By: Samuel Fromartz

Samuel Fromartz — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:25:03 +0000

Great comments here and more over at my blog at chewswise.com . I think Paolo makes an excellent point on language. If you visit an ethnic or rural farmers market, it’s likely just known as a farm stand or market, without the ideological baggage we’ve attached to the concept. Also appreciate LQ’s perspective — one that was echoed by a local meat purveyor over at my blog. Thanks everyone for commenting.

By: LQ

LQ — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:35:58 +0000

Yeah, I think you nailed it and Paolo has an important addition. Walking the walk is not elitist; talking the talk may be. My farmers’ market’s patrons are about 70% South, East, and Southheast Asian in background, maybe 20% white and Latino, the rest various. I would guess that a large number of the shoppers are fairly to very comfortably middle class, but plenty of them are not. They’re shopping there for a variety of reasons, including price (news flash: where I live, the market is often cheaper than the grocery store), availability of certain items outside potatoes/carrots/lettuce (and the market is WAY cheaper than places like Whole Foods when it comes to things like organic kabocha), health, and environmental concerns.

I suspect my fellow shoppers might been seen in smaller numbers at some of the chichi markets in the area, where produce prices are higher and the main focus is really on artisanal products, but hey, I don’t shop there either.

Yeah, why isn’t anybody talking to my fellow shoppers?

By: Paolo

Paolo — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:00:23 +0000

It seems to me that there are two important things that divide high-income communities from median- and low-income communities around food. The first, as the post touches on, is access. This is where the social inequalities come out: supermarket redlining, racism, and economic discrimination, deep injustices that manifest in a lot of places as a lack of healthful food.

The second issue is language. I don’t think it’s that “the ‘face’ of the locavore appears to be predominantly white…”, but that the term itself, “locavore,” is mainly the language of us white, upper-middle class folk. Who are we talking about in a “locavore movement”? Those trying to eat sustainably in the most adverse conditions, like urban agriculture organizations and food pantries, talk about food justice and food sovereignty — a very different perspective. The difference in terminology isn’t merely linguistical; it goes back the different different levels of access people have to food.

For a good urban agriculture take on these issues, Brahm Ahmadi’s blog is excellent. He’s the founder of The People’s Grocery in Oakland.

http://peoplesgrocery.org/blogs/brahm/

By: Melissa Danielle

Melissa Danielle — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:44:11 +0000

Perhaps the locavore movement is perceived as elitist because the “face” of the locavore appears to be predominately white and middle class.

If there were highly visible nonwhite faces on the taste/pleasure principle side of the sustainable food movement, then maybe it could really just be about eating good, nutritious food locally sourced.

By: Chiot's Run

Chiot's Run — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:00:08 +0000

Of course this is the case if you’re shopping at farmer’s markets located in affluent communities. Our farmer’s market in rural Ohio does not say “elitist” at all. If anything it’s the opposite view here. People think that if you’re “well-off enough” you shouldn’t have to grow some of your own food or shop at the farmer’s market.

I find the farmer’s market to be much cheaper than the local grocery store, so it’s actually the place where those on a budget should be shopping.

I think it’s more of an issue of those who care and those who don’t. I care deeply about where my food comes from and what goes into it. I have some good friends that don’t, so they shop at the grocery I shop at the farmer’s market.

By: Faith Kramer

Faith Kramer — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:22:11 +0000

Scene in an inner city chain supermarket in Oakland, CA, about a year ago.

Mother to daughter: Let’s get the organic one. It’s supposed to be better for you.

Of course that organic was neither local, fresh or small farm — it was the store’s branded boxed product, but still …