Thursday, May 14, 2009

Is It Local?

This article appeared in the Food section of the NY Times yesterday? (If you don't have time to read it, it's about Frito-Lay marketing their potato chips as local!) I'd say big corporations are stretching the term "local food," wouldn't you? I guess this may be a good thing, that large corporations are noticing the local food trend..... Or maybe not..... Let's hope they don't squash all us little guys. What do you think?


This is a shot of one of my multi-colored Brandywine tomatoes from last summer's garden. I've got to get some plants in the ground soon.....

7 comments:

Kate (KnitsInClass) said...

Wow - thanks for sharing that article. Very enlightening.
Maybe, it a round about sort of way, it could be a good thing for the big guys to talk about eating local. Maybe people will start to think more about where their food is coming from this way. However, I do agree that buying chips from a mass-producing company is not really following the locavore concept.

Buttermilk Biscuit the Norwegian Fjord Horse said...

Wow is right! To me local means not out of my way and easy to get close to my home. It also means that I may meet and know the grower/farmer/producer. There is a five part radio show on KUOW Seattle about farmers: http://kuow.org/program.php?id=17519 It says it won't be archived or podcasted, but you can listen online. Remember it's Pacific time, so add three hours for your Eastern time for broadcasting.

Turtle said...

gorgeous tomato!! we just need less rain, more sun to make ours grow!

Anonymous said...

Same topic was on NPR last night -- turns out local is relative to Frito Lay.

Linda

Carol said...

I want to be outraged but it might be progress in the right direction. It brings the concept to the masses who really didn't care before. It's bound to change more people to the real version of 'local' and that must be good, right?

Anonymous said...

I think we have to jump from the term "local" to something more like "organic, local, and hand made." Because what I want to buy and eat needs to meet all of those criteria. I want it to be good for me and my family, good for the people who made it, and good for the environment. Is that too much to ask?! It is definitely the goal -- keep up the good work for those of us moving toward that goal. :)

Lindy said...

Frito-Lay's advertising, IMHO, is nothing more than false advertising. They are using the term much the same way that the huge conglomerates are using the term "green". Much of Frito-Lay's products are linked to Monsanto and GM "foods". I think we can rightfully assume that for some people the chips will be local - the rest is pure scam.

Thank you for making us aware of this article.

BTW - your tomatoes are gorgeous :)

Lindy in AZ

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