permaculture

[tom <tom@honeychrome.com>]

I second lbsaltzman's comments on the article and even find it a  
little bit suspect (though  googling the author, James Randerson, and  
perusing his articles doesn't come up with anything to suggest he is  
a flack for industry or anything).  The story both oversimplifies the  
issue, while at the same time sowing doubt and confusion.  Most  
'consumers' are pretty lazy and statist and no doubt big agribusiness  
would love to have them wonder to themselves "Maybe buying local is  
actually WORSE than just maintaining the supermarket habits I've been  
programmed with.... so I guess I'll just carry on as usual!"  Anyone  
with half and awareness knows that the notion of re-localization of  
the food supply is about far, far more than simply the number of  
miles a food item has travelled.  It's about local control,  
awareness, community, etc. etc.  And I also wonder who these  
researchers are and exactly how they came up with the 2% figure.  "So  
food grown locally could have a considerably bigger footprint
than food flown halfway around the world...."  I'd like to see some  
examples of that- of course if you live next to a Tyson plant vs.  
buying an organic, free-range chicken from New Zealand then maybe  
buying the chicken from NZ would have a smaller footprint than buying  
the Tyson product, but I think that would be a rare scenario.