Food miles

We've all read about it, we've all discussed it here. What a lovely concept; help local agriculture and save the environment at the same time.

From that bastion of right wing conservatism, The New York Times:

Ooops!

[Robin Garr]

We've all read about it, we've all discussed it here. What a lovely concept; help local agriculture and save the environment at the same time.

From that bastion of right wing conservatism, The New York Times:

Ooops!

Anyone who thinks the Times is an ultra-left organ simply need follow their coverage of the Middle East for evidence to the contrary, and I would include both Israel and Iraq (and their neighbors).

The article at hand makes some good points, although not new ones - I mentioned the New Zealand study in a short piece on food miles that I wrote for a local newspaper a few months ago.

But alas, his core premise is based on a logical flaw:

"<i>There are many good reasons for eating local — freshness, purity, taste, community cohesion and preserving open space — but none of these benefits compares to the much-touted claim that eating local reduces fossil fuel consumption.</i>"

Uh ... no. It's true that the term "food miles" implies this as handy shorthand. But for me, and for just about everyone I know, the idea of eating locally because it's <i>good</i> is the No. 1 draw, and all the rest, as the teacher said, is commentary.

Well, that's what it is for me, too. The local stuff is just absolutely necessary for things like, oh, the tomato risotto I just posted.

But... remember selection bias. You're surrounded by foodies. So am I. But for most Berkeley Prius drivers, the taste of food isn't nearly as important as its political pedigree (see, for example, "fair trade" coffee).

I do hate it when food is politicized, and also when it is used as a way to avoid doing the right thing.

Local is best, for the freshness and health of the food. Unless someone can figure out how your local farmer can raise the stuff without a fuel guzzling tractor, then the so-called benefit to the environment is likely negligible.

[Robin Garr]

Well, that's what it is for me, too. The local stuff is just absolutely necessary for things like, oh, the tomato risotto I just posted.

But... remember selection bias. You're surrounded by foodies. So am I. But for most Berkeley Prius drivers, the taste of food isn't nearly as important as its political pedigree (see, for example, "fair trade" coffee).

Valid and reasonable. I can't honestly disagree.

That said, though, to introduce yet another rhetorical flaw into the discussion, it seems to me that the "food miles mean nothing" argument overlooks another variable that at least <i>appears</i> obvious: There's a whale of a lot more industrial carrots being trucked across the country in exhaust-belching semis than there are local organic carrots being munched by granola tree huggers in Berkeley or Greenwich Village or even Louisville's Highlands.

New Zealand lamb <i>may</i> be a peculiar example that proves the rule because there's not all that much of it. I wonder if the NZ versus England study would have come out the same if they compared the costs of flying NZ lamb to Louisville and bringing grass-fed lamb up from a Western Kentucky farm to a farmer's market in the back of his pickup truck.

I do hate it when food is politicized, and also when it is used as a way to avoid doing the right thing.

Local is best, for the freshness and health of the food. Unless someone can figure out how your local farmer can raise the stuff without a fuel guzzling tractor, then the so-called benefit to the environment is likely negligible.

Well, the transportation cost can be small compared with other energy inputs. With NZ lamb, you're replacing loads of fertilizers (produced with petroleum) and, in the Central Valley of California, irrigation water pumped using fossil fuels with New Zealand forage. You could fly the stuff in the Concorde and still be far ahead. The point is, sometimes local is not the best.

Walt

I do hate it when food is politicized, and also when it is used as a way to avoid doing the right thing.

Local is best, for the freshness and health of the food. Unless someone can figure out how your local farmer can raise the stuff without a fuel guzzling tractor, then the so-called benefit to the environment is likely negligible.

Well, the transportation cost can be small compared with other energy inputs. With NZ lamb, you're replacing loads of fertilizers (produced with petroleum) and, in the Central Valley of California, irrigation water pumped using fossil fuels with New Zealand forage. You could fly the stuff in the Concorde and still be far ahead. The point is, sometimes local is not the best.

Walt

Of course, Walt, not just local producers.

I mean local that is truly done on a local scale without the world view of where the produce may be sent.

I mean the guys who farm locally, sell locally and especially don't send their stuff to be processed--centralized.

I mean those who come to the farmer's market and spend the day selling his/her produce that was picked that morning.

I mean local.

Still, they run tractors, they may even have to run a truck to get their produce to the farmer's market.

To be really local--got to grow your own and then walk it from the garden to the kitchen.

The carbon footprint hype is beginning to make me crotchety...it seems so much like the attitude that built bomb shelters in the 50s.

[David M. Bueker]

Local produce=good taste.

Not to mention that Brian (the farmer who runs our local spot) is just a really good guy. We like supporting him and his family. His Dad is out there every weekend with a hoe, getting rid of weeds in the vegetables. The rest of the family is always around (including the two adorable black labs). We've known them now for probably close to ten years & seen them go through bad frosts, droughts & also some of the most glorious seasons I can remember.

This year the veggies are not doing so well, but the blueberries are fantastic & the apple crop looks very good. Raspberries have been good, and the plums and peaches good as well. We go every week, and will be doing so until they close around the 1st of November.

Dear David,
That is the reason I am willing to go to our farmer's market 45 or more weeks out of the year and cook with what's there even though there are only so many ways to prepare cruciferous vegetables. They just taste better than old corn from somewhere far away. The rare exceptions, those foods that still taste good such as Peruvian asparagus in their season, almost serve more to prove the rule.

However, I do worry about the environmental impact of all those trucks driving from as far away as San Diego (450 miles away) to get to my relatively small market. Big trucks going to single distribution points are far more efficient than every farmer for him- or herself. Oh well, can't have everything.

Walt

To be really local--got to grow your own and then walk it from the garden to the kitchen.

Yes. And there is (practically) nothing more satisfying in life than to walk out to the garden and pick dinner.

But for most Berkeley Prius drivers, the taste of food isn't nearly as important as its political pedigree (see, for example, "fair trade" coffee).

That's just sad. It's fine that people want to "do the right thing", but how can one even begin buying fresh, locally grown stuff and not immediately get hooked by the quality? That part is beyond me.

But for most Berkeley Prius drivers, the taste of food isn't nearly as important as its political pedigree (see, for example, "fair trade" coffee).

That's just sad. It's fine that people want to "do the right thing", but how can one even begin buying fresh, locally grown stuff and not immediately get hooked by the quality? That part is beyond me.

Because so many people have been eating so much bland and doctored food that they don't know what quality tastes like, and they certainly aren't going to bite into something that isn't shiny, perfectly round, and does not have a sticker on it attesting to its long journey from "our garden to your table," or some such marketing gibberish.

ADM: supermarket to the world, as sure as Mephistofeles (sp) is benign...

But... remember selection bias. You're surrounded by foodies. So am I. But for most Berkeley Prius drivers, the taste of food isn't nearly as important as its political pedigree (see, for example, "fair trade" coffee).

A debatable point, but then I drive a Scion, not a Prius.

The problem is the answer to so many choices we face is "it depends." People in this country prefer black and white, yes or no. Otherwise you have to think and look stuff up, a real hassle. More fun to just pick one belief and feel righteous about it.

Also, if the answer varies widely for all different kinds of food stuffs, most consumers have neither the time nor the resources to do the research. As with health care, this an area where the theory of efficient consumer choice breaks down.

Also, if the answer varies widely for all different kinds of food stuffs, most consumers have neither the time nor the resources to do the research. As with health care, this an area where the theory of efficient consumer choice breaks down.

Also a debatable point. Those who I have known facing serious health issues for themselves or loved ones have proven that the theory of efficient consumer choice is alive and well in health care. They will research and travel to get the best care they can afford. However, for issues that they can not directly equate to life threatening I agree that it breaks down but this appears to me to be based upon the value they place on "routine health care".

Keep debating guys. I'm heading for the Farmers' Market as soon as I sign off. Chio.

Keep debating guys. I'm heading for the Farmers' Market as soon as I sign off. Chio.

In your Prius?

In your Prius?

No, in my Highlander. Lots of choices at the FM in Wolfeboro. Ended up with a dinner of green and yellow zucchini, a fantastic Baguette from North Conway, and a locally organically raised boneless sirloin.

And, across the parking lot is one of better New Hampshire Liquor Stores!