Corporate Marketing High-Jacks Local Food

I just caught wind of this yesterday, and while I am snarly over the whole idea, I can't really say that I am surprised.

Frito-Lay Co-opts Local Food Movement, and More on the Way

You can easily tell when a social movement has begun to take hold and actually make real change: when it’s co-opted by corporations. And today marks that moment when the local food movement is officially legitimized in the scariest sense. And that means the real fight has begun.

You can read the rest of it here.

Here is an article about the campaign:

When ‘Local’ Makes It Big

When Jessica Prentice, a food writer in the San Francisco Bay area, invented the term “locavore,” she didn’t have Lay’s potato chips in mind.

But never mind. On Tuesday, five potato farmers rang the bell of the New York Stock Exchange, kicking off a marketing campaign that is trying to position the nation’s best-selling brand of potato chips as local food.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Apparently one of the reasons for this marketing stunt was to 'create community', to show farmers. So when you open a bag of their chips, you will get that wonderful feeling when you shop at the farmers' market. To me that is dishonest.

These 'tatters come from huge industrialized farms. As a locavore and an advocate for sustainable food production, to me that is not the same thing as getting 'tatters from the Amish family farm at the market.

In the spirit of flushing out B.S. I dedicate this video to Frito-Lay. ;)

Ænema by Tool



Sláinte!

Laurel