Filed under: Dollars and Sense
The New York Times published an article on May 12 titled When ‘Local’ Makes It Big. It’s an interesting piece talking — again — about what values underlie the consumer’s desire for local food. WIth Frito-Lay’s new ad campaign celebrating the “local people” claiming its potato chips are local (in Florida, Texas, Michigan, California and Maine) in an ad featuring some of the potato farmers growing for the large company, the conversation is kick-started about what is local. It also highlights the fact that companies are betting that consumers like the sound of local, particularly if it means they can eat whatever food they normally eat, without paying a higher price. (Like lets buy organic milk at Walmart as long as it costs what regular milk does….)
There is not one definition — or value — of eating local. For the hardcore (and I don’t use this term pejoratively), it refers not only to eating food grown and raised near you, knowing where the food was grown, how it was grown, and who grew it, but it refers also to a philosophy of small farms, reduced use of chemicals, more humane treatment of animals, and a sustainable model of farming. It’s also about ethics and the relationship between the land and the animals and the way we eat.
Yet for many people, this isn’t a value. I don’t mean the other extreme (for example, the massive lines at McDonalds on Mother’s Day morning), but rather, the folks in the community who wouldn’t mind eating local or organic food if it is convenient and priced about the same as the “regular” food. If the local lettuce looks clean and fresh and sits next to the conventional lettuce at about the same price, they might purchase it. These are the people that Frito-Lay and other companies are trying to make inroads with. And without selling out the locavore movement, perhaps it’s the start of a consumer awareness of where their food comes from, even if it is about potato chips to start with.
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