Going green

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Environmentalism is hot right now.  I’m certainly glad to see it, but I hope that it’s just not something trendy that people do for a while and then move on to the Next!Big!Thing!  The same can be said for the idea of eating local.  Many of us have been trying to eat seasonally and locally as often as possible for years, but now that ‘locavore’ is the New Oxford American Dictionary’s word of the year, well...I worry that it’s going to get overplayed and that people will get burnt out on it.

It seems that foodies are already being saturated by the message.  Bon Appetit’s latest issue, The Green Issue, is filled with information about eating seasonally and lists of ‘eco-friendly restaurants, even a brief interview with Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon (the 100 Mile Diet folks).  I thoroughly enjoyed the issue and found lots of great recipe ideas, but other readers are not so excited.  They want something new, and eating local is old news.  ‘Green’ style has been the topic of nearly every food, decorating, design, and clothing magazine in existence over the last six months.

The good news is that it does not appear that Philadelphia’s wide variety of farmer’s markets and farmstands are a trend.  Many people have spent years building the network and going through a lot of trouble to make locally grown produce from ethical growers available here in the city and its surrounding areas.  That’s some comfort, at least.