Everyday Meanings of “Local Food”: Views from Home and Field

A “buy local” approach to food sourcing appears to provide an increasingly salient mobilizing framework for city, county, and state level governments; non-profits; and funding agencies as a response to problems in the agri-food system. One rather constant source of tension, however, has been a failure to develop shared meanings about what constitutes “local food.” This paper critically examines the multiple ways that “local” is constructed in physical, relational, and symbolic space within the specific context of Washington State. In hopes of extending the debate beyond scholars and activists, we sought the perspectives of a broad sample of Washington citizens using farmer and consumer surveys. Open-ended questions were asked about the meaning of “local food,” as well as structured questions about the values and practical considerations associated with food production and marketing. Although a number of obstacles to using “local food” as a mobilizing construct to address systemic agricultural problems became evident, a surprising amount of agreement about the meaning of the concept was also uncovered.