What about food security? What about the concern about the local transport emissions from us the disorganized local shopper?

Sunny Lam raises the benefits of local food on guaranteeing food supply in an insecure world :

Sure we should have agriculture done in the best places for it and transport it out. Yet at the same time we have to realize that it's deadly dangerous to be so dependent on specific areas for food. With climate change as it is, can anyone be absolutely certain they'll be good for that in 10 years time?...Let's not forget political instability, wars and more. Where Iraq used to be one of the food baskets of agriculture in the past. Wars, badly done agriculture (poisoned earth - salt and bad irrigation, watering practices) and other factors destroyed that.

I will stick to my fair trade bananas (and beans in a cup) and pray for a little more peace. The summary article in the National Post made a number of strong points but may have overreached...

Pierre Desrochers (Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Toronto. Hiroko Shimizu is a private consultant) claims

... it is now generally admitted that concentrating agricultural production in the most favourable regions -- as opposed to diluting its impact over larger areas --is the best way to minimize human impacts because doing so "spares" much land which can then be returned or remain in a "natural" state. (Full Report)

This is a dubious generalization if it intends to suggest that we put all of our oranges in one orchard (haha). However, it economies of scale can lead to higher yields, but given that food shortages generally arise from poverty and distribution problems, higher yields may not actually help.

Desrochers also raise a straw man when they suggest that "a country or local region is not safer if it relies entirely on local crops that are always subject to bad yields or outright failures rather than on numerous foreign suppliers." Obviously, local food advocates are not arguing that countries like Canada, facing long winters, would be "entirely" food self-sufficient.

Perhaps, the funnest, fairest, and greenest (calculate your food miles ) path is to stick to fair trade, local, and delicious food!

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