Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
food system. They also stress the negative environmental impacts of
transporting foodstuffs over long distances. Finally they wish to reconnect
people with food, neighbouring producers and seasonality, as well as to
reduce the potential of environmental degradation and human exploitation
by avoiding “out of sight, out of mind” effects produced by long-distance
trade.
The opponents criticise the Food-Miles logic for its negation of pro-
ductivity differentials between geographical locations, claiming that feed-
ing a rapidly growing world population in a sustainable manner requires
long-distance trade to ensure that food is produced most effi ciently in
the most suitable locations (Desrochers and Shimizu, 2008). Ballingal
and Winchester (2008) go further by stating that local preference in food
choices in Europe would lead to “starving the poor” by depriving Southern
countries of important commercial income.
One particular aspect of the debate, the question of greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions related to the transportation of foodstuffs, is probably
the simplest to assess. All lines of evidence show that the benefi ts of lo-
calising food production are minor in that respect. For instance, Heyes
and Smith (2008) showed that daily familial shopping trips between home
and supermarket use as much energy as the overseas transport of the same
amount of food, while Weber and Matthews (2008) demonstrated that
transport is responsible for only a minor share of GHG emissions of the
whole food production chain in the US and concluded that changes in agri-
cultural practices or in the consumer diet composition have a much greater
impact than localising production.
However, the debate has never included the question of drinking water
supply even though drinking water production often competes with food
production in the same land areas, particularly in the densely populated re-
gions of Europe. This paper addresses the question of the compatibility of
agriculture and water production in rural areas. For the Seine watershed,
both the traditional feeding hinterland of Paris and its sole drinking water
supply, we show that it is possible to conceive an agricultural system able
to reconcile the dual function of rural areas, namely feeding the city and
producing high-quality water.
