When it comes to reforming the global food system, ditching industrial agriculture and going local is all anyone seems to talk about these days. Nurturing localized foodsheds is routinely promoted by sustainable food advocates as an effective way to subvert agribusiness while empowering communities to reclaim the mythical connection between farm and fork.
This is not to suggest that theres anything wrong with supporting local food production. If civic-minded foodies want to build locavore safe havens, more power to them. After spending two years visiting college campuses and speaking about my book Just Food: How Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, I came away genuinely impressed with these homegrown efforts, ones that certainly lead to fresher food and, at least for some citizens, communities enhanced by a shared mission. Plus, theres nothing like a locally sourced tomato.
But a problem emerges when food reformers argue that localizing food systems offers a useful approach to addressing the ecological injustices plaguing industrialized agricultureinjustices that bear directly on environmental stewardship, human safety, and the sustainability of the worlds most precious resources. Too often, when food reformers insist that we should go local, they allow global and environmentally detrimental trends to hide in plain sight.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Forbes
