join your local CSA.

[papergreen]

the EU considers taxes that would make the price of groceries shipped from around the world reflect the true costalright, so i hit you a few months back with the environmental costs of meat production. and the one about how scary a substance plastic is

Comments

[annawesley]

This New Yorker article (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/25/080225fa_fact_specter) put a spin on my understanding of idea of "food miles."

I personally try to cook seasonally (it's cheaper anyway) and more and more try to consume consciously, but it's interesting to think that importing beans to Europe from Africa is actually more efficient than growing them locally, and not just because of labor issues, but mainly because it's much more efficient to grow them there, among others. There are other factors to consider, of course, it's just a really complicated issue.

You should read that article though, it's good.

[papergreen]

paco:

did you read the article that i linked to?

what i am saying is that if a tomato is going to be shipped from ecuador to new york city, it should not be cheaper than a tomato grown on long island.
and a system of trade agreements that MAKES the first tomato cheaper is irrational and, shall i say, fucked up.

i don't know what any of what you're saying has to do with that.

[jdtnirvana]

my friend sent me an article about this, putting a pretty interesting spin on it that I think is good to consider. I'm going to try and find it, but basically it says something to the effect of... Here we are, forcing non-industrialized nations into trade agreements so they can't afford to grow their own food, therefore they grow food for us that they don't even eat (like those itty bitty corn things that are canned and put in salads), and then we grow a "conscience" on one issue and they get screwed out of making the money they need to eat and starving within a field of crops they don't eat. I'm not saying it's better to screw the environment and buy from far away non-industrialized nations, it's just that I think there's a lot more to the issues than just buying local. I'll try to find the article...

[papergreen]

yeah, i've read a bit about this.

i still can't stomach the idea of buying tomatoes that are flown from new york from ecuador when they can be grown on long island.

[jdtnirvana]

yeah, I get that. I guess I can't stomach making people starve though. Which may come out as if I think you're not making the best choice but is not what I'm saying.

Another thing I came across a lot was that food aid that is sent to poor countries, therefore mostly African, are grown in the US and shipped (with US farmers gaining from their expense). On top of the shitty nature of sending food and therefore using a lot of oil, people starve because of how long it takes to get the food there.

That's all... and I'm trying to grow my own garden since I'm going to be taking up a lot more land than normal. I don't know.

I guess what it boils down to is what my huge academic crush and mentor said. It's impossible to be just in an unjust system, and that's what I think this boils down to, in my opinion. Picking the best of two evils... one kills the innocent planet, the other kills innocent people.

[jdtnirvana]

this is not the article, but here's another...
http://conniff.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/dont-buy-local/?scp=1-b&sq=buy+local+food&st=nyt

Here's another view about food, international issues and buying locally.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/28/international/americas/28guatemala.html?scp=258&sq=buy+local+food&st=nyt

I was pretty sure it was a ny times op/ed piece, but looking through 33 pages, I still couldn't find it, which sucks because it was a really good article and didn't give a good idea of the best of both worlds, more just showed the moral dilemma of doing what seems best by buying local is also not 100% good. Just more to consider...

[dannnielle]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7371033.stm