The New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2007 was “locavore,” meaning someone who eats primarily foods produced within a certain distance of where they live, a proponent of the local-food movement.

Though you’ve most likely heard of the movement in association with global-warming issues, it does not conform to a single idea. Nor is “local food” synonymous with eating organic or sustainably produced food. It is the result of several unrelated grassroots organizations coming to similar solutions to a variety of economic, political, ecological and cultural concern...