Eating locally
March 13th, 2007
Time magazine just ran a story about eating locally vs eating organic. It was a great article to read especially considering the authors reason for considering the issue. He wasn’t concerned about global warming or the ethics of how food is grown but more interested in how it would taste and affect him (although he was less concerned by this).
If you get a chance I highly recommend reading the article because I expect it may make you pause to think next time you head off to the supermarket.
Me. I want both!
Local food grown as organically as possible. After giving it a lot of thought I suspect if I had to sway more towards one then it would be local food over organic like the author of the article decided.
For some time I’ve been thinking this over too, long before I read the article. Wondering where our food production habits went wrong.
Another series of thoughts I’ve pondered for many years late at night or in the car are ghost towns. What made them collapse (I’ve got to get around to reading Jared Diamond!)? What made them go under?
Yes I managed to roll these together some how!
Many small towns rely on a single industry to sustain it. The town I spent my high school years in and probably consider my home town has a major industry that I always had the impression sustained it. Coal and a power station. Now eventually the coal mine will close and the power station will become obsolete. The town itself will suffer these loses.
So I started visualising a town that has a structure like this:
So the town has the population because it has two large industries that employs people and brings money into the town. However most of everything else has to be imported which does mean that it all may cost a little more than it would normally which is fine because people have jobs with the two big industries.
Now if say one of the industries were to shut down - the main one:
The population drops immediately as workers leave to follow the jobs. There is a lot less money coming into the town. Products are also still being imported and since the volume isn’t as large it’s at higher prices. The remaining misc industries shrink or dissolve as the demand is no longer there. Unless a large industry replaces the void the town will continue to shrink.
This scenario has the township producing a diverse product range and selling it within the town, local products being bought by locals. There are one or two larger industries that after fulfilling the town requirements would sell some to neighbouring towns or cities. There is then a lot less importing of products and money stays within the community. There is a more diverse range of jobs available and the quality of the products is better due to not having to be frozen and shipped away. The local environment benefits from the diversity within the farming also.
In this scenario if a particular industry fails then the entire town doesn’t go under, that industry is either given time to recover or is replaced with another. By centralising your industry you are removing a community’s ability to recover.
Now if you were to have two neighbouring towns using the same structure then you may see one of them having a smaller cattle industry and a larger carrot and beetroot industry and exchanging the excess. This only serves to further strengthen the two towns.
Don’t get me wrong I know that what I’m talking about here is a lot more complicated than what goes on in my head. These examples are very simple and the product of my musings not any research. So I don’t want scientists and town planners sending me data. To be honest I’m not that interested. Except where I can use this strategy in my own life.
My ultimate life style could be modelled on this very easily. I don’t eat meat so living in this manner wouldn’t require as much farmer skills (farmers work damn hard). But I would love to get myself a little land and grow a diverse range of food for my family and I. Not rely so much on the importing of products. I’m really fascinated by the ideas around complimentary growing too.
I’m not trying to make a statement, I like my consumer products and the food range that’s available to me.
Just sharing some of my thoughts
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I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but here the vegetables in the supermarket are nearly innedible. When it’s the right time of year, I’ll go to a local farmer’s market for fantastic veggies.
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I’d love to be more self sufficient in veg, and am thinking about getting some chickens too.
I like your economic models, I feel there is currently a real movement to move to more locally produced stuff here in England. Still a long way to go, and it may yet prove to be just a fashion, but it’s hopeful.
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Joshua - I know what you mean sometimes fruit here is so under ripe or damaged and they still charge so much for it. I’ve made a note to rant about supermarkets and how they work!
Dan - How cool would it to have chickens too? Whilst I’m vegetarian I still do eat eggs. We’re pretty fussy on the eggs though and there is a really great brand that gets carried on and off by the supermarkets called Eco Eggs - they are great you can tell the difference when you crack one open.
Thanks for being nice about my “economic” models - they are way too simple for anything but musings! Although I wonder why things need to be so hard?
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First off, I have to say congratulations. That is the longest article I have read in a whole long while. I usually see articles this length and scan the first and last paragraph and skip the middle. Well, I read it. LOL…
I like your models too. I think I live in your ideal town, so woo hoo…. We maybe a little leaned towards the way of the transportation industry though with route 81 at my door steps. That is the import and export arrows though that happen in every town, so will probably stay awhile.
Anyways, I agree with you on the foods too. I grow a garden but the tomatoes are the highlight for me. I can take or leave the rest. LOL..
I want to get some chickens too. I fear that they will tear up my neighbors volleyball court though, so I always end up not getting them. (She has a permanent court with tons of sand at it.) I think the chickens will love dusting themselves off under the court and making a real mess of it. My neighbor says it is okay, but I still hesitate. I of course would give her eggs. LOL…
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Jennifer - I’m really happy that you got through the post becuase I know what you mean and it was a longish one too - home grown tomatoes are awesome and I’m not much of a tomato eating kind of guy (are we an actual type of guy I wonder?).
The decision to become a small chicken farmer is a hard one because I reckon they would like the volleyball court - but fresh eggs is a pretty good trade off and you can always shoo them off when the tournament starts!
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Yeah, homegrown tomatoes rock. EEeeemmmm!
It is more the chicken poop that concerns me more than the physical chickens in this scenerio. Who wants to play volleyball in chicken poo? I think maybe if I make them a really nice sandbox somewhere next to my barn, maybe in the back. They would maybe love it and I could divert them from the volleyball court. The court is very close to my barn though, closer than my house is to my barn. LOL….
I want to get those chickens that lay blue eggs though so we will be eating chicken eggs that look like robin eggs around here. I know…I am just strange. LOL…
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You already have a barn! Half the battle is already done! LOL
Blue eggs - well I suppose… why not!
All this talk is making me really itchy to grow some tomatoes!
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Have I said it before? Yeah, homegrown tomatoes rock. EEeeemmmm!
Yeah, I have a barn. I have goats. They are pets. I also have a pig. A pot-bellied one, so not breakfast.
Search my site for goats and you will find lots of pictures, just the other day my husband cleaned the barn so there is a great picture of that too, so good work to him. LOL…
So yeah, I have the space and all for these chickens, I just delay for sanitation reasons. See…my goats don’t poop on my neighbors lawn and roll in her volleyball court. If I have chickens…no way will I keep them cooped up, so that is my only issue really.
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