Nowadays the food we eat comes from all over the world. While the worldly selection of your average supermarket means we have huge variety of chow choices, it also carries a great cost. We not only pay more for the food because of shipping costs, but the environmental effects of the fossil fuel burned in the shipping process also add to the costs. In “Miles to Go Before I Eat”, Mark Anderson explores an extreme solution to this problem; only eat food that is grown, produced, and sold within a 150 mile radius of your home.
This practice, known popularly as Localism, has obvious drawbacks and advantages. One of the main drawbacks is the huge change in diet that this practice entails. Chances are that you will have cut processed foods, wheat (that means everything made with flour), spices, salt, sugar, rice, coffee, tea, and most fruits out of your diet, just to name a few. You will also be on a constant quest around the countryside to find new local foods, which may actually use more fossil fuels than your new diet is saving. But that’s just my theory. The advantages of localism, however, are also clear. First of all, it prevents the problems discussed in the previous paragraph. Second, you will be helping out local farmers and your local economy. And third, your diet will probably be a lot healthier.
But is localism, even if the radius was expanded to say 300 miles, really a practical solution? I think that a better idea would just be to switch to a partially local diet. Anderson points out that even eating only one local meal a week could save a huge amount of oil. If more people started regularly shopping at their local farmers market it would be a much better solution than the one explored by Anderson. Because honestly the cost of shipping salt and spices is really not that significant. So what can be done to up the popularity of farmers markets and local foods?
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