Tangerine tango

Read this blog post about the Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth responding to a question about global warming, food miles ..and tangerines.

From Ben Smith:


The politics of global warming got very concrete, and oddly difficult, In a meeting with local environmentalists in the coastal town of McClellanville today, where Elizabeth Edwards raised in passing the importance of relying on locally-grown fruit.
"We've been moving back to 'buy local,'" Mrs. Edwards said, outlining a trade policy that "acknowledges the carbon footprint" of transporting fruit.
"I live in North Carolina. I'll probably never eat a tangerine again," she said, speaking of a time when the fruit is reaches the price that it "needs" to be.
Edwards had talked about "sacrifice," at the meeting, but Elizabeth's suggestion illustrated just how difficult it is to sell the specifics of sacrifice.
Asked about her comment immediately after the event, John Edwards avoided the question twice, then said he isn't sure.
"Would I add to the price of food?" he asked. "I'd have to think about that."
UPDATE: Just to be clear, he's not talking about a food tax. The basic point is that any plan that imposes new costs on carbon emissions is going to make anything that's transported long distances with fossil fuels cost more. It is, in a way, a moment of clarity in this debate.

TK: Preposterous. There is no way the majority of consumers, including myself, want tangerines from Chile, California or Spain to cost 10 cents more per pound because of some global warming tax, or some other scheme to impose new costs based on "a carbon footprint." Again, perhaps a moment of needed clarity to see where the fuzzy talk of global warming is leading us.