Become a Locavore: eat local for a month and help humanity save itself from civilisational collapse

A local scene here in North Cork where people lived for 5000 years and managed to survive and thrive before the cult of the male, hierarchical gods took over and all changed, utterly…

There’s a new phrase hitting the media here in Ireland — go locavore! Like carnivore for meateaters, or omnivore for eaters of everything, a locavore describes a kind of eating, only this focuses on eating local. Can eating local save the world? Unlikely. It’s more expensive and definitely more time consuming than going to the supermarket. But even small changes can make differences to your awareness, and that’s the way that all changes begin.

What is eating local? If you have a garden and can grow all or most of your own food, then you’ll eat local without too much of a problem. Most of us don’t have that privilege. Here in County Cork, we grow a few peas, tomatoes, salad stuff and herbs, but we wouldn’t last long on that. This month, the apple trees are groaning with fruit which kindly neighbours say we can help ourselves to, and the hedgerows brimming with blackberries. There are mushrooms in the woods, and elderberries for making wine. If we’re going to go local this is the month to do it.

We eat a little meat and fish so I manage to get some mackerel that’s been caught in the sea off the Cobh. It’s certainly more expensive than supermarket fish, as is the chicken I get the following week for a Sunday roast which will then do for curry (I manage to…