The Wall Street Journal on The Rise of the Lazy Locavore

Fun article on lazy locavores in the WSJ.  We first wrote about this trend several years ago, and last year we became one.   

Locavores try to purchase as much food as possible from locally grown sources.  Locavores do this for a variety of reasons.  Local food is fresher, tastes better, is more likely to be organic and often (but not always) less harmful to the environment. 

The best source, of course, is a home garden.  But lazy locavores either don’t have the skills or time to tend to their crops.  Instead, they use “urban sharecropers.”  Key quote from the WSJ article:

… homeowners who lack free time or gardening skills are teaming up with would-be farmers who lack backyards. Around the country, a new crop of match-makers are helping the two groups find each other and make arrangements that enable both sides to share resources and grow their own food.

Many cities and towns have urban sharecroper services.  Sharing Backyards, which is mentioned in the article, is a good example.  They connect people with land to urban farmers. 

The locavore movement is part of the broader, multifaceted New Localism trend, which we discuss in the Intuit 2020 Report. 

We also cover the locavore movement and related local food topics in our Small Farms category.