Do The Local Notion

Localness is the #1 story of 2006.

By Vanessa Richmond, 28 Dec 2006, TheTyee.ca

saturnalamb

Home roast lamb is just part of the local craze.

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In 2006, global warming went mainstream and Iraq went to hell. It was the year of the “oh s%$t!” moment, as some among the world’s elite began to grudgingly accept that that oil stuff may not last forever. That realization is behind our pick for top big story of 2006: localness.

What is “localness”?  It’s Part yuppie fad, part literal grassroots revolution. It’s the idea that closer is better, that something grown, sewn or produced close to home is better than something from far away.

Localness isn’t new. The slow food and local food movements have been around for years. But in 2006, the trend went mainstream. The New York Times named “food miles,” the distance your food traveled from producer to plate, among on its annual buzzwords. And Jaime Oliver, maybe the most famous chef in the world, led off his new cook book with the admonition to “remember: real cooks champion only local seasonal, fresh produce. Closer to home, The Tyee’s own 100-Mile Diet became an international phenomenon. A book on the adventure in eating is due out this spring.

So what’s the big deal with local food? Some fans favour the supposedly richer taste and higher nutrition found in food picked ripe. Some approve of the smaller footprint local food leaves. Some like that it means they can monitor the ethics of their food. And still others like the fact that they can meet the producers, making food a more intimate experience.

Organic and local products aren’t just for hippies or back-to-the-landers  (though they’re enjoying a renaissance too), but for foodies and ordinary folks. Farmer’s markets are bustling. And there are equal numbers of luxury vehicles and bikes in the parking lots out front.

Localness, though, isn't just about food. The same craze has hit fashion markets and boutiques. Once synonymous with "frumpy" and "mediocre," the slow clothes movement  has actually made it desirable to be seen with a local label.  Some local designers even say that where "handmade" used to lower value, it now raises it.  Customized, individual clothes provide more style credibility than those cloned from displays in chain store windows.  And fashion markets like Portabello West are popping up all over the province.

Some shoppers at local food and fashion markets are motivated by sustainability. But others haven't heard of the concept: they say they're just there because local products are higher quality and cooler.  That might suggest localness is more than a single-faceted, quickly stale, 2006-isolated trend.  But does it mean that blue chip, brand name and big box the new dinosaurs? Or will localness remain a tiny niche in a globalized world?

That's the question for 2007. [Tyee]

Vanessa Richmond is managing editor at The Tyee.

5 Comments:

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  • southdeltawalker

    5 years ago

    Comments on "Do The Local Notion"

    "Localness" has really affected my buying habits. Over the past year i have worked hard to try as much to buy local. I avoid imported goods as much as possible, do not buy anything from China.
    For example, in the summer i always got Corona beer but now buy Shaftsbury brewed right here in Delta-i know that not all ingredients are local but beats bottles being transported over 1000 kms.
    For Christmas i gave 100 mile baskets-these were baskets {from the thrift store} filled with my home canning, mostly local ingredients some of which i grew myself i.e. pickled homegrown green beans.
    Sometimes i pay more for local organic but believe that the cost is more than worth it when you take in the benefit to the earth and to the local economy.
    I don't believe this is just a fad but people are rethinking the actual cost of buying all these imported goods. When you factor in the pollution and exploitation of workers involved with producing goods in some countries, buying local is the best option.
    Out here in South Delta I put bean poles in my front yard and will continue to convert the grass to productive land. I had more beans that i could use, just from 3 bean poles.
    How much longer can we go on with grass that is cut with polluting belching gas lawnmowere when that land could be providing food and habitat for birds? In my neighbourhoof-people come out cut there lawn so it looks perfect than go back inside their house...how much longer can we use land as a home decor accent?
    Not all local is good though. The greenhouse industry out here is taking away valuable bird and raptor habitat and is causing air pollution as they can burn sawdust. I have not bought a greenhouse produced tomato, pepper or cumcumber in years and years.

  • Cycling Commuter

    5 years ago

    When a jar of applesauce imported all the way from Holland is cheaper than locally-produced applesauce, there's something very weird going on. It's not like Holland is a low-wage third world country with ultra-low taxes and no social benefits.

    Apples are very easy to grow here. When I was a kid, I took along an apple to eat when I went hunting with my dad. That apple tasted so good I decided to bring the core home and plant it in our back yard in hopes of getting lots more tasty apples like that. Sure enough, a tree started growing in that spot without me doing anything other than burying the apple core. Within a few years, the tree started producing tasty fruit without any further effort whatsoever on my part.

    One of my brothers runs a small trucking/distribution business that hauls apples and other produce to the Vancouver area in bulk from the Okanagan. He sorts and packages the produce into retail-sized boxes then distributes it to local stores. A substantial amount of perfectly nutritious product is discarded during the sorting process because of minor blemishes. These rejects would make great applesauce, but they wind up being used for compost because nobody wants them.

    It would be great if local economics experts (honest, unbiased experts, not extreme left or extreme right types with preconceived notions) could trace both B.C. and Dutch applesauce from tree to BC supermarket shelves and produce a report with a very detailed breakdown showing the cost differences along the way.

    How does the cost of trucking an apple from the Okanagan to Vancouver compare to the cost of bringing a jar of applesauce from Holland to Vancouver? How much automation is used in the Dutch applesauce factories compared to Vancouver applesauce factories? If the Dutch use more automation than we do, are their capital investment tax laws and labour laws different from ours somehow? Are the Dutch applesauce factories employee-owned, government-owned or corporate owned? What's the deal with seasonal workers in the Dutch food industry? Do the Dutch find other jobs for seasonal food workers during the rest of the year, or do they work only a couple of months then collect pogey for the rest of the year as happens so often in Canada? See further details on an example of this at
    http://thetyee.ca/Books/2006/12/26/Chapters/#post98151 It's interesting that my brother who was paid over $1,200 an hour (including pogey)for sweeping floors in a seasonal food industry related job now works very hard running his own trucking/distribution business. It's amazing what proper motivation can accomplish in terms of productivity.

  • alive

    5 years ago

    Quote:
    How much longer can we go on with grass that is cut with polluting belching gas lawnmowere when that land could be providing food and habitat for birds?

    The quick answer is that this will continue as long as "we" insist on having that patch of lawn that "we' never use for anything except to impress our neighbours.
    "Little boxes" surrounded by little fences while everybody studiously avoid stepping outside.
    Walk through any neighbourhood and notive how it looks as if no people inhabit the place.
    We have become a nation of cave-dwellers commuting to work and then seeking relief from the various entertainment scources inside our homes!
    Density could be increased tenfold, and the average citizen would never notice, except that the lawn-maintenance became easier perhaps?
    To dream that such lotus-eaters would consider using their land for productive growing, is not real!
    A quick trip to the supermarket and they have the makins of the few meals they do not order in, so why bother?

  • RickW

    5 years ago

    CC:

    Quote:
    When a jar of applesauce imported all the way from Holland is cheaper than locally-produced applesauce, there's something very weird going on.

    True enough!
    But I suppose a "simple" answer might be that Dutch production has the whole of the EU to distribute to, and throwing a few cases of applesauce on a plane or ship bound for "the colonies" does little to affect the cost.
    I would say it is likely the Dutch applesauce enjoys a certain "protection" within the EU, which allows for a certain amount of long-term planning. If a potential producer here had similar protection, it would be a level playing field, and the capitalization would be easier to obtain. But we can't even trade interprovincially ........

  • rob

    5 years ago

    All important changes happen at the margins, where hardly anyone is watching until the momentum has increased to the point where it starts to seep into the public consciousness.

    Only 1 - 2% of the food consumed in Canada is certified organic and yet that is the fastest growing and most profitable part of the food sector for the Giant Food Corporations and for local farmers.

    You do not need the vast majority of people to be ' on trend ' for real change to take place. Just enough to create some buzz and attention.

    We cannot replace the present Industrial System of Food Production just like that. First, the idea of Local and Sustainable has to become widespread and working models of a local based food system have to be developed.

    Farmers, Consumers, Schools, Municipalities, Businesses and the Media are all starting to look beyond their own narrow fields of interest ( their silos ) to see common ground with other groups in society.

    While Giant Corporation want to buy up this strong, grassroots surge towards Local - Sustainable - Biologically Produced food, they have one big problem YOU CANNOT IMPORT LOCAL FROM A DEVELOPING COUNTRY!!

    Their problem becomes community groups advantage, at the local level.Right now, as the TYEE has done an excellent job of documenting, the Demand for local food is far outstripping the Supply. Imports make up over 80% of the certified organic food consumed in BC each year.

    BC is the strongest, fastest growing most organized certified organic market in Canada and was the only place in the country where the number of farms actually increased according to a Canadian Organic Growers report for 2005.
    This growth was attributed to the strong local market for local food. Consumers can help create a local food system.

    In Washington and Oregon, they were able to dramatically increase the number of local farmers through community based campaigns to increase the use of local food.

    My eating habits are also shifting to more local, so this is not just a short term trend but something that may be generational because it is tied in with the Health and Environmental mega-trends affecting the whole world.

    Developing food processing infrastructure, which as CC has pointed out, is a key deficit right now with local food systems, is the most challenging barrier. There are International - National - Provincial and other laws and regulations that get in the way and these are very resistant to change from the community level.

    BC also has the strongest certified organic manufacturing infrastructure in Canada and a good part of it is in the Okanagan bioregion.

    All this is a good start , but only a start.

    Consumer education, focused on the key issues we can do something about e.g. good luck getting the Codex Alimentarus process to change or influencing the Canadian Food Inspection agency!! But, getting your city council to donate a space for a year round Farmer's Market or for local schools to include a School Garden as part of their curriculum; well, that is something that is happening right now, all over BC.

    I think the TYEE is just doing a tremendous job of helping to educate us all about Food and other key issues. Maestro had a great idea to start a TYEE sponsored side bar discussion about agriculture so we can continue to explore these important ideas in one place whose link stays visible on the TYEE front page.

    It takes a long time to change behaviour but it all starts with spreading new ideas of what is possible.

    Thanks TYEE and Happy 2007!!

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