Cultural Relativism and Thoughts on Food

Recently, I have come across the word "loca-vore" which means a person who eats locally. Define local. Japan is the size of the entire state of California. So, if I eat something grown in northern California, is that local? In a city of 12 million people, I could easily find a dozen mom-and-pop small stores that sold domestically produced produce on the 4 lane road next to the "Urbane Fox For Ladies" building where I lived (aka Seisho Arms) in Tokyo. I know the vegetables there were produced in Japan - as well as the rice. About 30% of the fruit was grown in Japan at these stores. Now I live in a small valley that prides itself on ORGANIC. Yet, there is only one mom-and-pop store I know of here. There are CSA's, which I guess are the closest thing to the stores I could so easily find on the Ome Kaido (street I lived on) that sold seasonal produce. I took it all for granted. I never used processed-anything except maybe Yuzu Ponsu. There is no doubt that the produce was not Organic at these stores. So, to be a loca-vore is one thing; to be a loca-vore and organic may be another. Lest I ruffle feathers, I think I will keep this blog entry right here. Upsetting Americans and their viewpoints is still rather a scary place to prospect.