the darkness has not overcome it

You may want to check out eatlocalchallenge.com for various people's takes on eating locally. They also had a one-week challenge in late April wherein participants (myself included) ate as locally as possible while tracking expenses. It wasn't *cheap*, but the general consensus was that eating locally and within the average American's weekly food budget is doable. The real problem is that people working minimum wage jobs may not have the extra time it takes to eat cheap, healthy food, whether local or not.