Feeding mom locally

There is a growing body of evidence to show that sourcing produce locally is actually considerably less sustainable than importing - counter-intuitive, but true. Check out this New York Times article, which summarizes some of the research:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/opinion/06mcwilliams.html 

Jeremy,

Yes,  I have heard that in some places, the local food production is in fact so inefficient (industrial system with big dependency on chemical fertilizers and fuel for tractors etc) that it IS more efficient to get some food from 11000 miles away.  Actually it was mentioned on page 221 of "100 Mile Diet" that I just finished on the weekend.   Of course, the research quoted here is by New Zealand University regarding NZ's products sent to Britain.  In 2005, academics in London estimated that the environmental costs to Britian's farming practices could be reduced by 75% by switching to strictly organic.  Therefore the solution is definately to improve the inefficiencies [where ever they are] rather than continue wasteful systems.  This reminds me of the debate: do you choose local conventionally grown food or organic from California.  I think I heard David Suzuki say that organic from Ca would be better [if those were the only choices], but's it's one of those very complicated issues that makes environmental decision making sometimes requiring a PhD degree in economics, agriculture and energy.  It's a good thing that we have lots of local organic options here in Vancouver (up until October that is).

I can't access the NYTimes article, but I expect (and hope) they were comparing efficient distant production with inefficient local productions.  As we're probably all aware, if we look for the results we want to find, we'll find them.   

 Cheers.

Daryl 

Hi Darryl - sorry you can't acces the article. I must have been registered for the site - I think its a free sign up at NYT if you have an interest.

Yes, I agree - the results of that research are somewhat deflating - because we have so many choices in our life with environmental and social consequences it makes it so much easier to conceptual a sustainable lifestyle if we have easy rules. I posted that article in a couple of places on the web with a bit of trepidation - as I can imagine people saying:

"oh great, now buying locally is evil - I give up, I'm going for what's cheapest."

Because who has the time to do academic research on every food item in their fridge to see if it is more sustainable to source locally?

But I do think there is something to the argument - which is reliant on the concept of comparative advantage. That it is often more efficient for certain parts of the world to produce large quantities of certain things. Though I'm certainly interested in hearing alternatives - I would much rather source locally if I can.

I can't even buy anything local where I live these days. (Moved from Vancouver to St John's.) I have little choice but to go to the big supermarkets, and to buy non-local food, or else switch to meat and turnips.