Local=Environmentally Responsible, right? Wrong, says a recent report from British researchers.
After 199 pages of detail on everything from automatic picking machines to consumer packaging, the researchers find no strong evidence that locally sourced foods are better, in environmental terms at least, than global produce - and in some cases the opposite is true.
Whoa! What? We were fascinated by Planes, Brains and Automobiles, an article we found through megnut, and we wanted to discuss it a bit more here.
Part of this surprising result comes from the fact that agriculture and food systems are highly complex - much more than any single factor can reflect.
"Transport has been taken out and highlighted," says Rebecca White, a researcher at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute (ECI). "But you can't single out one part [of the food system] and say something that's come from thousands of miles away is automatically less sustainable - it's much more complicated than that."
America, especially California, Texas, and other parts of the West, offers unique questions that arise from our energy-intensive systems of farming. For instance, can you buy a peach from the Central Valley and still call it local if it was grown with water that has been piped in from hundreds of miles away, at a fantastic cost of energy and money?
While water conservationists point out that pressurised sprayers and drip irrigation systems distribute water to crops more efficiently than traditional gravity-based methods, they require mechanical pumping and therefore consume more energy.
There have been challenges to this report, of course, but supporters argue that again, the distance a food travels from farm to table is only one among many factors. Farm equipment takes up great energy and spews out emissions; heating for barns, electricity for lighting and pumps - these all add up.
In a study published last year, New Zealand's Lincoln University measured everything from electric fences to farm sheds, tractors and animal feed, and found that dairy and lamb production in New Zealand was more energy efficient than the British equivalent, even when the 12,000-mile trip to the UK was included.
There are many reasons to buy local - economic, freshness, and seasonality. This article prodded us, however, to spend more time reading and considering more sides of the complex, global food system we live with today.
(Image credit: Davis Co-op)
Sometimes you are comparing apples to oranges (pun intended). A local large farm in a place that must pump in water is different that a small local farm with it's own deep well. Comparing a remote huge farming operations' efficiency per piece/ounce of food to a much smaller local farm is not exactly a fair comparison.
For me the local focus has more to do with self-sufficiency within a community than carbon miles on the road. Yes, that remotely grown orange is cheaper than a local apple the same weight, but I know the guy that picked and sold that apple, and I am happy that buying that apple allows him to continue to sell apples. Did his tractor and barn heating use more energy than the orange harvester? Probably.
view samaritan's profile
I always get a little depressed during green debates, because I truly do want to conserve and do my part, but doing so is by no means always obvious. I buy produce locally more because I want to support local agriculture than because it's "greener" anyway. There does come a time for me when the cheaper choice wins regardless of green status.
view cmcinnyc's profile
Thanks so much for sharing this! One of the things I miss most in my attempts to live more ethically is that so often everything is handed out in soundbites and we miss out on nuanced discussions. These are obviously *extremely* complex issues that deserve more thought than hopping on and off different bandwagons. (Though it's great that there's enough interest that soundbites are being heard and dispensed at all.)
I really find it valuable to hear different perspectives on why conscientious people make the decisions they do.
view happify's profile
It's unfortunate that farming is so energy-intensive, but that's the price you pay for skyrocketing population and food demand. Even if the difference between eating local and eating far-away is marginal, I think it's still a good idea. You know where your food is coming from, you're giving more power to the small farmer...and of course it tastes so much better.
view Jim of ChewOnThat's profile
Ah, but "local" is not necessarily "small farmer." I grew up in California's Central Valley, and farming there has always been big business, dominated by larger producers. Even the companies selling at the local farmer's market were not necessarily mom-and-pop operations. The really great fruit was what you grew in your own back yard.
I'm glad to see acknowledgment that the issue's more complex than "buy local." The globalized food production network has done a lot to improve standards of nutrition -- you just don't hear about your neighbors getting rickets, now that oranges and orange juice are in the store year-round.
view wende in phoenix's profile
Hear hear Wende. It's hard to forget big business farming when you're dodging tomato trucks in the Central Valley when it's that time of year.
The bottom line is always going to be "know where your food comes from". Sadly, the average consumer wants some kind of easy guideline, thus the surge in big farm organics.
I have interesting discussions all the time with my mother on these kinds of topics--she grew up on a small olive orchard in Northern California and her parents came from farming families on both sides. Our generation is incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to make these kinds of nuanced choices. Something I think a lot of people take for granted far more than they should in a world where many people still don't.
view graphxgrrl's profile
Now if someone would just pass that report to Michael Pollen. I am so sick of hearing about how eating local conserves energy and helps the planet.
All these foodies do not realize that little effort they put in to choose local food only helps to satiate their conscience. If they really want to see green house gases go down, how about we eliminate all of our coal power plants?
How many foodies are rallying for nuclear power plants?
Exactly.
We go to great lengths in order to make ourselves feel better about our decisions in life, even when we have no certifiable proof that our contributions make a significant difference.
view foodinmouth's profile