Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

If you want the historical perspective on being a locavore, go back to times when food wasn't routinely shipped across the country and all over the world, mostly because there was no practical way to do so. Flour, sugar and salt was easy to ship, store, and distribute, but perishables had to come from local sources. People lived without a lot of products that we take for granted, and people went hungry when crops failed or when something went wrong with the supplies they canned, cured, or stored.

If you compare that to the current locovore movement, you'll find that many current locavores are fine with buying products that aren't grown locally, so coffee and black pepper and spices and coconuts are all on the menu because we've become used to a ready supply of so many things that don't grow well locally. And I'll bet there are more locavores in California than in Minnesota.

There was something on the food or travel channel that talked about pineapples and how most people on the mainland had no idea what pineapples were until someone came up with a way to can them. So the canned pineapples arrived in the US before we knew what a fresh one was.

Is it bad to ship pineapples and for us mainlanders to eat them? Again, it's not a one-way trip for the planes, trains, and trucks.

People grow crops in areas that are suited for those crops. Not all crops grow in all places. Some places aren't suited for growing much at all, but we might have industries in those areas that support a population of workers. Those workers have to eat, so food gets shipped in, products get shipped out.

The idea of eating local food when it's available and practical makes sense. But personally I'm not ready to revert to a time pre-refrigerated trucks and pre-modern canning.

Wow, thanks for all the great responses! I will definitely do a site search, I didn't even think of doing that at all!

@dhorst: It's just a basic second level writing course that is required for everyone. We're currently reading "Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver and we are trying to tie food into pretty much all the other humanities and sciences. (But mostly sciences since I go to SUNY-ESF and its pretty much science 24/7) I'm in Syracuse but since most of the CNY region has similar weather I was thinking about writing it about CNY but I may end up doing just the Syracuse area. My paper is supposed to be I think, 8 pages, so not very long at all!

@embackus: That is actually the book we are reading for class right now!

I may end up quoting some of you in my paper or using your thoughts, but I will be sure to let you know before hand to make sure its okay :)

You might also want to research some of the Amish communities around the state. Some are obscure, but there are many in central and northern NY, many of them are true locavores as they live off their own land.