Creative Non-fiction

The movement known as Locavorism is a system centered on the process of buying foods that are produced in the local community to help the participant’s nutritional state and carbon-footprint. The proponents of the movement are usually good-willed and actually have good intentions. However, many of the benefits they state Locavorism includes are incorrect, and even somewhat fraudulent. In fact, the only real benefit to Locavorism is that the economic resources used on the food are thrust back into the local economy at a greater yield. Altogether, the Locavorism movement is orchestrated by naive individuals that possess benign intentions, but its lack of nutritional benefit, increased carbon footprint and decreased quality and safety cause the movement to be no more than the idealistic hallucinations of a madman.

There are many misconceptions that accompany the idea of Locavorism, and one of the most prominent is the assertion that locally grown food is more nutritious than food that has been transported from areas that are not within a 100-mile radius. Jennifer Maiser states that “This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time) (Source A). Although there is strong evidence showing that, after being picked, food slowly begins to lose its nutritional value, people tested in the United States have not shown to be lacking the nutrients that produce provides (Source B). This makes the argument that Americans need larger amounts of the nutrients found in produce redundant, because any surplus of those substances will be disposed of by the process of urination. Granted, a person needs to be conscious of making proper decisions of what they are buying and putting in their body, ...

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...animals inspected and held up to a rigorous standard before they are even allowed to utilize those animals (Web). The argument that safety is improved when using locally produced foods is essentially as counterintuitive an argument as one could make, giving little footholds left for the Locavorism movement.

The Locavorism movement holds little to no significance or benefit aside from retaining economic resources for the local economy. The arguments that the food is safer, better for nutrition, more eco-friendly and more appetizing are all assertions that hold little to no factual basis with mountains of evidence giving the exact contrary. Many people prefer locally grown food for superficial reasons, however, the world would not suddenly benefit from the entire population deciding to eat only local food and would only result in a very limited and unfulfilled palate.