Michael, are you objecting to any label? If you are, then no substitute term will do, either.

I happen to like “locavore” because it sounds kind of funny and seems not to take itself too seriously, as does “vegan” and “gourmet.”

I'm also not sure that it suggests the exclusivity that you believe it does. I have called myself a “carnivore,” but that doesn't mean I eat only meat.

Put me down in favor of liking the word locavore (which seems to have won the competition over its more exact but more lettered rival, localvore).  I agree with the Editor-in-Chief that we do not want to be exclusive, limiting or just plain hard.  This is not a movement for zealots or ascetics.  Still, we need a word to suit us and locavore is as good as any.

Firstly, I am un-persuaded that locavore has been captured by the most extreme of our brethren.  It's earliest carriers may have had an exact definition in their minds when they coined the word, i.e., if you do not confound to the rules, say 100 miles, you are not a locavore, but I have found in the blogs and disscussions on the Internet nary a voice for such extremism.  If you peruse the posts at the Eat Local Challenge Blog especially the earliest ones, when we were all getting started, you find pretty much everyone (I only say pretty much as I have not re-read all the earliest posts and there may be someone out there on the edge) makes their definition of eating local fuzzy.  Secondly, there is no Academie Francaise policing our words.  We the users of the term can make it anything we want it to be.  If the great majority of people, with less harsh ideas of local in their diet want to be locavores, well, let's make it happen.

I like locavore because it already stands for so much.  It stands mostly for knowing about your food, calling it local is just another way of saying you care about where you food comes from.  Caring that it comes from farmers and producers you know, farmer's and producers you trust, and farmers and producers that you expect to be good before you even dig in.  I had an outstanding locavore dinner the other night at L'Etoilei n Madison that went from the effete micro greens to the heft of aged sirloin with stops along the way for nuts and berries as well as hunks of pork.  It all fit in to the locavore diet.

Sure, let's be on guard against those who want to make our word mean something we are not.  We can reject any movement that includes principles we care not to live.  We can be what we want, locavores.