Eat Local . . . or ELSE!

Time magazine--bellwether for brilliant health reporting

Would you break someone's leg for bringing a pig across state lines? Well this guy did. Admittedly, large amounts of alcohol seem to have been involved, but I've had large amounts of alcohol before and never felt compelled to beat up someone because they were corrupting our local youth with out of state pork.

I've no problem with Eat Local as a heuristic leading people to be more aware of their food choices. But if I want to buy some bacon imported from Australia, that's nobody else's business but mine. I don't want some drunk hipster chef with a mohawk chasing me out of the store whilst brandishing a crowbar.

People don't get this riled up about organic. Have you ever seen a hipster holding someone in a headlock screaming, "THAT CARROT AIN'T ORGANIC!"?

The difference is that there is much more of a political undercurrent to Eat Local. It is linked to caring about the planet, reducing greenhouse gasses, voting for the right people, being nice to bunny rabbits, etc.

Sure this was just an isolated incident. But then so was the pepper-spray pie thrown at Lierre Keith. Most vegans (I'd like to think), considered that incident to be abhorrent, or at the very least, counter-productive. Vegan violence is not a big problem, of course (not least because they lack the muscle development), and neither is Eat Local violence. Still, the similarities are there, the self-righteousness, dogma, etc. And Eat Local is a relatively new phenomena. 

Ultimately, Eat Local is just a slogan linked in many people's minds with other slogans. People that replace thinking with slogans are the cause of a large majority of the problems in this world.