On local food - is it bullet proof?

Going through some email links, a few insightful selections about local food that are worth looking at:


Blogger: local food reconsidered From Cindy W:

What about local food? Is the concept bullet proof?

A couple of years ago, I happened upon an interview of Peter Singer, a professional ethicist (who knew there was such as profession?) who was best known for his 1975 book “Animal Liberation” – a canonical text of the animal rights movement.

In his book The Way We Eat, aside from discussing ethical issues with animal husbandry, he provided a curious example against the local food movement. Singer argued that the “socially responsible folks in San Francisco would do better to buy their rice from Bangladesh than from local growers in California.”

Why? California rice is produced using artificial irrigation and fertilizers that involve intensive energy use. Rice grown in Bangladesh takes advantage of the natural flooding of the rivers and does not require any artificial irrigation. It also doesn’t require as much synthetic fertilizers since the river washes down nutrients. The energy used for the Bangladesh rice to get to our table is quite efficient compared to the artificial irrigation and local trucking. Shipping, it seems, is ten times more energy efficient than trucking.

Interesting food for thought.

Then another article this year pointed out that local fruits and veggies might have more food-miles than produce at the supermarket. Wandering about San Francisco’s famous Ferry Plaza farmers’ market, the author observed that most farmers there drove their “Ford, Isuzu or Chevrolet trucks, packing anywhere between 200 and 2,000 pounds of goods”. They trucked their produce an average of 117 miles.

In comparison, the produce from a conventional distributor who buys from California, Arizona, Washington, Texas and Mexico averages 942 miles.

But they mostly use semi-trailer trucks that can pack 40,000 pounds of food. After a bunch of detailed carbon calculations later, the author concluded that the wholesaler won for the most part as far as CO2 emission was concerned.

Cost is factor in local food From Scotland:

Of course, the "future" of local food, if I may use such a phrase, lies in the hands of all of us, the people who buy and eat it. Local food, though, does cost more, as the producers cannot apply the economies of scale open to the supermarkets, and that will remain the most crucial factor in determining its success.

The local food challenge From JS Online:

For 10 days, from Friday through Sept. 14, consumers are encouraged to spend 10% of their food money on locally grown or produced foods.

But talk to people who make eating local a way of everyday life, and you’ll realize it isn’t really about politics at all.

It’s about food they say tastes better and is fresher and healthier. It’s about the satisfaction of knowing exactly where your food comes from. It’s about a chance to share food activities with the rest of the family. And it’s about helping your community.

Farmers try to keep up with local demand From Lawrence, KS:

In Lawrence, the demand for locally grown fruits and vegetables is already higher than what farmers can provide. The increased interest is seen at The Community Mercantile, Lawrence Farmers’ Market and a service where subscribers pay in advance for a season’s worth of produce.

“It has taken on a life of its own,” said Stuart Shafer, a Jefferson County farmer who sells his fruits and vegetables for the Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance.

Other headlines;

Eat local to avoid salmonella