Putting boots to the local food movement

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

A new book, called "The Locavore's Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet" says it's a good idea, environmentally, to buy food from countries far away where it is more efficiently produced. Authors Pierre Desrocher, associate geography professor at the University of Toronto, and his wife Hiroko Shimizu, a policy analyst, dismiss the idea of "food miles," asserting that "it makes more sense to grow a tomato in an unheated greenhouse and truck it than to heat a local greenhouse."

They also charge that buying local food to help farmers and boost the local economy "destroys more jobs than it creates." In a question-and-answer-style interview published in The Toronto Star, Desrocher said: "Let's say the same quality tomato is grown for $1 in Florida and $1.50 in Ontario. If you push the local one, you create tomato-growing jobs in Ontario. But consumers have 50 cents less to spend on other local services or goods, which destroys jobs. There are a lot more consumers than producers."

The authors defended "agribusiness," arguing that a smaller percentage of the world's population is hungry today compared to 1950, and that the local food supply is far safer.

Desrocher and Shimizu dismiss the local food movement as a fad. "There have been plenty of local food movements in the last century and they never last long. People ultimately vote with their wallets." BF