Subject: Re: [permaculture] The eco-diet ... and it's not just about food miles
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:46:32 -0400
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.
Re: [permaculture] The eco-diet ... and it's not just about food miles,
tom, 06/12/2007