Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
food transportation is often fuel-efficient. The arguments of comparative advantage
for long distance sources seem especially cogent given the need to increase food
production substantially, not simply for the extra 2.4 billion people by 2050, but
for the hoped-for increase in living standards of the world's poor, without finding
new crop land by destroying the large areas of tropical forests. In the
Locavore's
Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet
, Desrochers and Shimizu (
2012
) argue
that food subsistence farming is drudgery and that large-scale industrial farmers
have made food more available, varied, affordable and nutritious than any time in
history. The study maintains that if we want to save the planet and feed the growing
human population we should be should be eating globally, not only locally.
Obviously there is a big difference in the conclusions of those emphasizing more
local production and those stressing the route of comparative advantage which
results in longer supply chains. Certainly local food may be desired by the more
ecologically minded, who may be prepared to pay the premium price. Many will
also argue that local sourcing produces fresher food, with fewer additives to en-
sure freshness, and also encourages pride in local products. These can be featured
in local restaurants, providing an addition to the distinctiveness in towns and re-
gions, in place of the creeping homogeneity in cuisine that is so often criticized
and rejected in countries such as France and especially Italy where the Slow Food
and Slow City movements originated (Chap. 15). In addition, of course, increasing
local production leads to a greater variety in local employment and may also keep
more farmers on the land, with resultant benefits to local economic opportunity and
environmental stewardship. Many of these advantages are difficult to quantify and
relate to the comparative cost argument. There is also the point that the rejection
of foreign sources could reduce supplies from under-developed countries, which
may limit their development and could lead to less employment, although there will
always be crops that cannot be grown in many temperate climate countries. But
there is no need to assume that one approach is chosen exclusively over another.
Most Transition Town enthusiasts are not locavores; rather they wish to redress the
current balance where practically all food is imported to urban areas. Adding more
local production has the advantages described above. Moreover it is often observed
that too many of the large-scale industrial agricultural and marketing enterprises
in less developed countries provide limited returns to local farmers, who remain at
almost subsistence level. This is why various Fair Trade schemes have grown up,
especially visible in Co-operative stores in the U.K. in which products for sale in
western countries come from producing units where a fair price is paid for the prod-
ucts. Hence this adds an ethical issue on the side of local versus long distance food.
In addition, most research reviews do not show any energy or emissions advantage
for local versus global supplies, or organic versus current agricultural techniques,
although measurement problems in dealing with information from different coun-
tries do make the conclusions tentative (Foster et al.
2006
). So only using the energy
and emissions arguments for increasing local and organic food production may not
be the only factors that need to be considered. Indeed the issue of food security for
any area must be considered. This was recently acknowledged as an future issue
of concern by the U.K. government, when food security was added to the goals
