The term locavore has come to refer to people who try to only eat food that is grown within a one hundred mile radius (or less) of their home.

The term came into use on World Environment Day in 2005. It was coined by Jessica Prentice to describe a person who ate a diet that consisted of locally grown food.

But why would someone want to do that? And wouldn't they starve to death?

Food, the way that it is done now, has a huge carbon footprint. It is transported for thousands of miles using fossil fuels. Even if you have a dairy a mile away from your home the milk you drink likely travels several hundred miles at the very least before it gets to your table.

Since the food is stored for such a long period of time we have had to process it more and more. Pasteurized milk was not enough to keep themilk from spoiling over a long period of time and so ultra pasteurization (which is not good for the milk or you) was created. Now milk does not even really need to be refrigerated!

Foods that are out of season are often grown in the opposite hemisphere. Strawberries in January, for example, may come from South America. Not every country has the same safeguards as the United States and pesticides and practices that have been banned in the U.S. may be used in other countries.

Finally, with as many recalls on foods as there have been in the past few years knowing how and where your food is grown is just smart.

There is a much wider selection of foods that one might think at the local level. In America we have become so accustomed to getting everything packaged and processed that we don't often think outside of the macaroni and cheese box.

A great place to start the search for what is available locally is to check with Local Harvest. This is an online resource that helps people find out what is available in their area. It is amazing to find out that there are artisian cheesemakers, for example, that you never knew about within just a few miles of where you live.

Another way to obtain this fresh, local food is to go to the local growers only farmer's market. It is important to go to one that is specifically for growers of food because in some areas, especially urban areas, the farmers markets are filled with people selling produce that they bought at the local produce wholesaler.

Talk to the farmers and find out what they are growing, what is available and what will be coming into season. Plan to buy things in large quanities and learn how to can, freeze or dehydrate the food for storage.

Begin to garden. Growing your own food brings personal satisfaction unlike any other. Almost anyone can grow a few tomato plants in a container, or find a place for a few rows of green beans.

Not that many years ago children were sent out in the summertime with buckets to find blackberry thickets and bring home as much of the wild grown fruit as they could. People were aware of the local edibles that grew wild. Many of those same edible plants grow wild in our yards, hedgerows, and creekbanks, just as they always have. Get a good book on foraging and learn what is available in your area.

1. Start small. Don't try to do it all at once if it is overwhelming. Make consistant small changes.
2. If you can't get it locally try to make it Fair Trade.
3. Grow at least something in a pot. A tomato, a few herbs, but grow something you can eat.
4. Get used to eating fresh. When your taste gets used to fresh you will never be able to eat old, limp lettuce again.
5. Pick Your Own has a list of local farms where you can pick your own produce.
6. Eat Wild has a list of pasture based meat farms. There may be one near you.
7. Get a handbook for the edible wild plants in your area and learn to forage. Pecans, walnuts, hickory nuts, blackberries, and wild garlic are only some of the things that grow wild.

8. Learn to garden, and to preserve food.

Until you have tasted a fresh strawberry, picked and eaten immediately while it is still warm with the summer sun you just have not really tasted a strawberry. So much of the food we eat is tasteless, nutrition-less, filler that Americans almost don't know what real food tastes like.

By eating locally you encourage the local economy. You support farmers who are growing heirloom vegetables and supporting thier families with their endeavors. Most of all, by eating locally you eat better.

Try it for a month and see what happens.