I live in a place where nothing fresh or natural grows for 7 months of the year, and for most of the other 5 what's fresh is still growing and "not ready yet".

I live in a place where nothing fresh or natural grows for 7 months of the year, and for most of the other 5 what's fresh is still growing and "not ready yet". The "eat local" movement is therefore directly opposed to eating "fresh and natural". It's not surprising that practically nobody eats local here. Yet, people have lived here for thousands of years. Nomadic natives hunted buffalo, and you can bet they got sick of pemmican and jerky after a few months of being snowbound. It's no wonder that they considered liver, plucked fresh and warm from the body of a still-quivering kill, to be a delicacy. Settlers subsisted on stored grains and potatoes stored underground. They ate the occasional cow or chicken too and hunted for venison, but meat was not had with every meal. In the first half of the previous century canning techniques allowed them to greatly expand their diet by storing everything they could lay their hands on in the month or two of plenty. In the latter half of the twentieth century refrigeration let them expand their diet again. Today, fresh food from around the globe is brought in by plane, train, and automobile. Meanwhile, this province produces vast amounts of grains and beef for export all around the globe. By eating globally, we all eat better. I don't know what global trends are like, but locally we're in the midst of another big transformation. When I was a child, almost everyone made their own meals. Eating out was expensive and rare. There was no local equivalent to England's fish&chip shops or the street vendors of Thailand. Even McDonald's was expensive when compared to home-cooking. That's changed. Restaurant fare has become so affordable that it's almost cheaper to eat out. The main downside to doing so is health. Restaurants always put in that extra pound of butter if the outcome will taste better. There are a few fledgling restaurants trying to carve out a niche for healthy fast-food. It will be interesting to see if they succeed.