Locavore

Food can be exhausting. It's easier to let the grocery store make our decisions, and listening to others' food politics can be more exhausting than running a farm. In her travels across Canada to talk with the farmers and chefs trying to get Canadians to eat local, Sarah Elton feels a bit late to the game in detailing her discovery of local foods. But foremost, her view is overly simplistic. It's easy to change your habits as an educated Torontonian yuppie, but not everyone has the freedom to choose; thousands of Canadians live in areas where they're limited to what the local superstore stocks, at least for much of the year. The roots of the problems with our food system lie deeper than where top Vancouver chefs source their oysters and how many markets you can buy organic eggs at in Toronto. Elton hints at this, but misses the mark. It's nice meeting farmers from Wolfville to Vancouver Island, but ultimately, this comes off feeling like a feel-good book for urban foodies wanting to pride themselves on food-buying choices they've probably already made.