With food, it's not as simple as "buy local"

[robert]

My friend (President of Northwest VEG) quoted in this article about buying local:

 

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=120337005044779800

[DV]

I read that article and wish it had gone deeper. Certainly, the idea of local doesn't work of you don't also eat foods that are in season (rather than from a greenhouse) or foods that grow easily in your local climate. We are very lucky here in Oregon because we have many different climates in our state. It was a different story for me when I lived in the northeast.

 

Certainly, if we were worried about eating local AND responsibly then we would give up foods that cannot be grown locally. We would say goodbye to tropical fruits, coffee, chocolate, many nuts, etc. Something most people are not willing to do.

 

No simple answers.

[Dr. Pink]

As soon as transportation to far away places becomes as easy as walking down the street then there will be a simple answer. Make the whole world local. Travel to local produce stands...thousands of miles away.

 

But until then I mostly just buy from health food stores. I always try and shop for the lowest priced organic.

[Live_Simply]

As soon as transportation to far away places becomes as easy as walking down the street then there will be a simple answer. Make the whole world local. Travel to local produce stands...thousands of miles away.

 

Yes, well this modus vivendi of suburbia-- and now exurbia-- is coming to an end. Alas, global petroleum production is plateauing (i.e., peak oil) as global demand is increasing exponentially. Our whole civilization is in for a radical change in the next decade, and I have no reason to believe that it will be anything less than apocalyptic. I refer you to The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler or The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World by Paul Roberts or the excellent recent documentary Crude Awakening. And what makes the threat of global peak oil so ominous is that it seems to be occurring just as our Ponzi-scheme economy is starting to unravel. In merely a few generations we went from an economy based on manufacturing to an economy based on consumerism-- which itself is based on debt and borrowing from countries whose goals and interests are inimical to decency and freedom, i.e., China, Dubai, et al. But at least my raw foods vegan diet will serve me well in the coming "long emergency".

[phillipeb]

Roberts post reminded me of the NY times article i read:

 

If It’s Fresh and Local, Is It Always Greener?