Eating locally

Some foodie friends, including the estimable Jessica Prentice, have launched a challenge to eat locally during August. That means not buying, preparing or eating food that is grown or raised outside a hundred mile radius. They're calling themselves locavores -- that's from "local," I think, not "loca."

This is one of those things you can admire but not, actually, do. I find Jessica a wonderfully warm and enchanting person, but some of her monthly essays on food and agriculture are a little overwhelming. They're the nonfiction equivalent of magical realism, in which everything has ... what's the opposite of a "shadow side"? A side that glows just a bit too much, like you were coming on to an acid trip and you have an inkling that if this keeps up it could be overwhelming. And yet everything she writes is common-sense and not woo woo at all. Maybe I'm just too old, again.

locavores, eating, food industry, Jessica Prentice, foodies