Going Local Goes Corporate?

Think your food choices go unnoticed?  Think again.  The local food movement is, as you probably know, growing is scale and scope every year.  For many reasons, people like yourself are choosing to buy food from local people and places that they know.  And it looks like major corporations like Frito-Lay (owned by PepsiCo.) are taking note. 

The New York Times article, "When 'Local' Makes It Big", by Kim Severson on May 13 describes the co-opting of the "buy local" philosophy that is taking place in the market place these days.  Turns out that large food corporations would like to play their "local" card as well.  Paralleling the transformation of the term organic from the 1960's until now, the original meaning of the movement is increasingly in the hands of corporate marketing campaigns.  As Michael Pollen, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemna" and "In Defense of Food", is quoted as saying, "The ingenuity of the food manufacturers and marketers never ceases to amaze me.  They can turn any critique into a new way to sell food. You’ve got to hand it to them.”

Ultimately it is up to you, the consumer, to determine the difference between a box of CSA produce and a bag of potato chips.