Are you a festivore?
Dean DeCrease on Mar 23rd 2008
Consider the birds living in the highest canopies of the forest. They are perfectly adapted to flit from branch to branch, eating the particular seeds and insects found only up there, raising their young and protecting one another from prey in their lofty community. Likewise the strange fishes who live under tremendous pressure on the dark ocean floor, blind and cold… they are perfectly healthy, too, in their world.
As any zookeeper will attest, remove an animal from its natural habitat and it is very difficult to keep it alive, let alone full of vitality into old age. It requires scrupulous attention to recreate the key components of its natural habitat in captivity.
We (humans) used to get our lifestyle from nature, but now we buy it from corporations. The lifestyle products we buy are developed by marketers and technicians to sell more product — nature’s plan for “our natural habitat” is rarely considered. As this industrialization of lifestyle products becomes more pervasive, our own habitat has been radically changed. Increasing rates of chronic disease, social & emotional ills, “nature-deficit disorder”… are we an endangered species?
festivore advocates for lifestyles in harmony with nature — with “living well,” global health, and a more sustainable environment as outcomes. In our business activities we provide information and tools for consumers to make better choices… and we reward businesses for offering products that are compatible with our fundamental needs for a living planet.
festivore is a project of the fourth element, a global nonprofit dedicated to improving consumer choices; defending global health. To find out more about this organization, try this link.
———
what is a festivore?
You have heard of omnivores (people who eat everything) and locavores (people who eat local food)… but perhaps you are really a festivore! Festivores are people who love food, love life, and see dining as a celebration of nature’s bountiful harvest. They like their food to be mostly local, seasonal, natural and mostly plants. But they are not extremists; they enjoy occasional extravagances and compensate the next day when they do – life is meant to be lived.
Festivores know that dining is also a social event. Over a meal families come together, friendships are celebrated, deals are struck, and romances are kindled. And of course festivores are “green,” so they like their restaurants and food to be eco-friendly and fair.
We suspect that festivores tend to live happily into old age because they follow Nature’s path.
[By the way, locavore was the 2007 Oxford University Press “Word of the Year.”]
———
The perfect restaurant is relaxing, fun, engaging, affordable, natural and gorgeous and has local, delicious food which is good for you. But festivore is not extremist; we know that great restaurants are hard to find, that coffee is never local in Canada, and that even in an affordable restaurant some dishes have expensive ingredients that need to be priced higher.
We also know that, even though having an “industrial” (corn-fed) steak every day is likely to send you to an early grave (and is painfully lacking in culinary imagination), eating naturally-raised steak once in a while is pleasurable and harmless for most people.
As Aristotle said, “we are what we repeatedly do.” So let’s make a habit of living in harmony with the design of our bodies and our minds, and let’s have a wonderful time along the way…
———
who uses festivore?
- frequent diners
- travelers and newcomers to an area
- chefs and foodies
- people seeking better health
- “green” diners (looking for restaurants that share their values about local food, eco-friendliness, social equity, community, etc.)
- diners looking for a natural, relaxing place to meet & eat
- impulse diners
coming soon
- New York, Vancouver, San Francisco and London guides
- member benefit programs
- sustainable products
- local festivore chapters
———
more about festivore.com
festivore is a critical guide with a culinary inclination. We do not have reader reviews, but score every vendor ourselves through a careful set of criteria. We do have a lively blog, the FORUM (in the sidebar), where we share our ideas about food & lifestyle and we invite readers to exchange information and continue our education of what restaurants should be included in the guide. And while we extol the virtues of natural and healthy foods, we do not recommend restaurants that serve something tasteless under the guise of it being good for you. We want to enjoy what we eat.
We believe ingredients should be mostly natural, foods should be mostly local and that people should eat mostly plants. Portions should be small or designed for sharing. We seek establishments with their own personality and avoid the cookie-cutter chains. Industrial food eaten on the run does not meet our needs. However, we do see the need for convenience & affordability, and we do appreciate the beauty of technology that allows for delicious food from around the world to be brought to our door, to complement our local foods.
———
Press: articles on the fourth element and festivore
No responses yet