Is Locavorism Practical Where You Live? Freaknomics States the Obvious
The Freakonomics folks are stirring up the anti-locavore pot once again, this time with a guest post by James McWilliams, a historian and the author of the forthcoming book Just Food.
The thrust of McWilliams' argument is this: In many regions of the country it makes no economic, environmental, or eating sense to adopt a locavore diet, because the climate or the land itself doesn't lend itself to locavore practices.
There is no news here. Locavorism taken to its illogical extreme in places with short growing seasons (like New York and the entire northeastern U.S.) is neither practical nor desirable unless:
1. We are willing to eat only canned, preserved, and frozen vegetables eight months of the year
2. We are willing to forego exotic fruits where we live.
McWilliams on locavore logic:
That kind of logic sends us back to never-never land. Unless one can envision the government in a place like the United States telling citizens and corporations that they cannot settle in a particular region because the resources do not conform to a locavore vision, we’re back to the thorny reality that some places simply cannot justify, on environmental grounds, a localized food system.
So McWilliams is telling us something most serious eaters already know, namely, that it's not practical in most parts of the country to be pure locavores. Duh!
So what should serious eaters who love to eat delicious things and care about sustainable agriculture do? Support their local farmers by eating as much local food in season, and eat bananas whenever you feel like it.
Oh, yeah, one more thing:
Don't read the Freakanomics blog for eating advice. To paraphrase the great Bob Dylan, you don't need the Freakonomics weathermen to tell you which way the food winds are blowing.
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17 Comments:
Dylan also said "Lotta people ain't got no food on the table, but they gotta lotta forks and knives, and they gotta cut somethin'"
(although Woodie Guthrie wrote it)
srhcb at 8:58PM on 08/31/08
I'm with you, Ed...sure one can get on their high horse that it's not practical, but the basic fact is No Farms, No Food. Unless we want all our food to be flown in from who knows where and grown who knows how, we need to be supporting our local organic farms and farmers by buying their produce. An organic farm share is the way to go if you're lucky enough to live in an area with such a farm, if not then buying from a green market.
sugarstack at 9:23PM on 08/31/08
I live in New York. I find that in the winter, I eat lots of cabbages, turnips, parsnips, potatos, apples, grains, hot house lettuce and herbs, cheeses and meats. I don't eat asparagus, string beans, tomatoes, zuccini, strawberries, etc. Not because I'm trying to be a seasonal zealot. Just because that stuff doesn't taste good in the winter. Locavorism can be very straightforward and easy. It usually tastes better to eat locally and seasonally than just eating whatever you want whenever you want it.
simon at 11:35PM on 08/31/08
People in the northeast who support the local food movement have been countering this idiocy by taking a stand for eating in season. Those who are attacking the local food movement, do not do so for valid reasons, they hope to ultimately attack it all across the country.
Face it, the Freakonomics freaks are little more than ignorant racists, there's nothing new with them, their garbage is lifted from the eugenicists of from the past. If you're going to support something, why not try to select something more ethical than the mindsets that rationalized slavery.
Mares at 11:38PM on 08/31/08
Our way of eating has evolved since we moved here full time. I'm freezing blueberries now; they're everywhere. Soon I'll be making "sauce" to freeze of whatever apples, pears, quinces fall into my hands. I'll tell the farmer that there is room in the freezer if she has a lamb or some pork or beef. I'll put a box of potatoes in the garden hut when our CSA farmer starts selling the keepers that way. And then with those things tucked away, we'll use the foods simon mentions, as well. After Thanksgiving, those will come from our small supermarket. None of this was a conscious decision. It just happened as we ate around the island, saw what was available, made choices for deliciousness, and convenience. It was not ideological. I'm suspicious of all ideologies. We will eat bananas, Italian pasta, coffee, spices from Penzeys, etc. I won't feel virtuous, and I won't feel particularly guilty. And all of the above is subject to revision as circumstances alter.
islandexile at 12:44AM on 09/01/08
I am a fan of the first Freakonomics book but this is just ridiculous. Canned vegetables are disgusting and bad for your health. I totally support the local food movement, too. Health is something they should consider as part of their logic. Would it really help the economy if there are hordes of sick people eventually?
Yu Ming Lui at 12:45AM on 09/01/08
Okay, for the people who eat cabbages, potatoes, etc. in the winter, how is that food more local than anything else in the produce section? I'm not questioning your choice, I'm just wondering how those particular veggies fit the locavore concept.
dbcurrie at 1:52AM on 09/01/08
I don't think the article is objectionable. The points made should be part of the discussion about where we get our food and how much it costs.
kathy in oakland at 10:45AM on 09/01/08
@dbcurrie - Cabbages, potatoes, onions, carrots, hearty greens, winter squash, sweet potatoes, apples, etc., are all available from local farms in the northeast in the wintertime, and many of the NYC greenmarkets are open year-round.
Once I started eating seasonally, I have had the same experience Simon mentions - strawberries, zucchini, asparagus, etc., just don't taste right in the winter, and not only because they're shipped from thousands of miles away. My body just doesn't want raw or lightly cooked delicate summer produce in the winter. I tend to get very cold, and these things only exacerbate that - heartier foods don't.
I'm also not a local-eating zealot, and I do recognize that since I have a regular source for local foods (the greenmarket), it's easier for me than it is for a lot of people who are only able to buy produce from grocery stores. But I've found eating locally and seasonally a lot easier than I expected. It's not 100%, of course - I do eat a bit of frozen fruit and veg in the winter to tide myself over, but not much. Another thing I've found much easier than I expected: giving up bananas.
@Mares - The Freakonomics folks do tend to think highly of themselves and make obvious points like the locavore one, but I've read the book and I don't remember anything that could have been interpreted as rationalizing slavery. ??
producestories at 11:02AM on 09/01/08
produce stories: i don't know about the book, or slavery, but the freakonomics blog was all over the anti-racist blogosphere last week for saying some stupid shit about mixed race folks.
as for the locavore stuff, yeah. seriously, it's like a lot of arguments against things that make a lot of sense. "but we can't do it all the way all the time!" that doesn't lessen the impact of doing it sometimes or as much as you can. plus, they are ignoring the complimentary vertical farming movement entirely.
al oof at 12:52PM on 09/01/08
@producestories, thanks for the response. One more question: what's a "greenmarket"? Here, we've got the farmer's markets which are only open in the growing season, and then there are regular grocery stores, which of course sell produce all year long. Maybe we've got greenmarkets here, but we just call them something else.
If I wanted to eat local foods from the first frost to the first harvest of the next year, I'd be limited to what I've got in my own freezer or pantry, but I'd be going without any fresh veggies for about half the year. I can't say that I'd be willing to do that. Health-wise, I don't think it make a lot of sense, either.
dbcurrie at 2:23PM on 09/01/08
@dbcurrie - where are you located? Chances are you might be able to get local 'winter' produce where you are as well. All of the veggies mentioned by @producestories are storage veggies....they are harvested as long as possible into the fall & early winter, but they store extremely well in the right conditions. I know we have NY apples nearly all winter long if they've been stored correctly. Unfortunately the flavor does diminish on some things as they've been stored, but they still taste better than some that have been shipped around the world.
Root cellars are wonderful storage places for your late harvest produce....and as others have mentioned around here, tomatoes can be harvested green, wrapped in newspaper & stored in dark, cool conditions....brought out to ripen as needed...they will last a few months this way.
I tend to eat like simon & islandexile....I just know local tastes better, and I adjust my fresh fruit & veggie winter habits to those of our ancestors...they survived without strawberries in the winter, and I think I can too!
mepolo at 2:50PM on 09/01/08
So, okay, the freakonomics people might be saying ridiculous, douchebaggy things, and okay, local food tastes better, and no, we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. But sometimes I do think that the focus on the moral underpinnings of locavorism does shortchange people who lack access.
What I mean to say: I do think it's important to keep reminding people that not everyone can shop at farmer's markets and greenmarkets and eat seasonally - not in a bid to throw up our hands and say, "aw, to hell with it," but instead to promote finding ways to get food to people who need it. I know a lot of people who live nowhere near a market other than quickiemarts, don't have a means to get transportation, work all of the hours that anyone would consider possible to shop, etc.
I think we do a disservice when we scold individual people with a haughty, "Come on, it's not THAT hard!" The way our economic and food delivery systems are set up is the real problem, not individual poor people who can't afford to or don't have the time to ride a 2 hour bus across town to lug 22 lbs of vegetable home.
BangieB at 4:06PM on 09/01/08
If the local farmers are storing produce, it's for personal use, not for sale. There's really no method for them to sell after the farmer's markets close unless they could sell to the grocery stores, and that doesn't seem to be happening, even now. The "local" produce that the grocery stores are crowing about having are actually from large commercial farms elsewhere in the state.
Many of the local farms have farmstands, but I doubt it would be practical for them to keep those open in the dead of winter to sell stored carrots and potatoes. If they even had enough of those products to sell to the public.
The farmer's markets end at about Halloween, but if it wasn't for the fact that farmers are selling pumpkins, gourds, and corn stalks, the markets would probably end earlier, as soon as the majority of the picking is done.
And I can tell ya that they aren't harvesting nearby in the early winter. I can drive past the fields and see what's going on, and there's nothing happening after the first frost, which could be in September or October. They harvest the tender stuff before the frost, and the rest gets harvested pretty quickly afterward, and then they're done until its time to plant again.
I can store a certain amount of produce, and I usually get carried away with the winter squash at the last market of the year, because it's cheap and stores well. But I don't have a root cellar, or even a basement. And there's only so much freezer space.
There may be some larger commercial farms farther away that store produce. Some of them may sell to the local grocery stores and I may be buying that produce by coincidence, but most of the grocery produce isn't labeled as to where it was grown unless there's a particular reason to do so. I don't think I've ever seen cabbages labeled as such. So yeah, maybe I'm buying some produce grown in-state. But still not from the local farmers.
dbcurrie at 4:40PM on 09/01/08
@BangieB -- re: I think we do a disservice when we scold individual people with a haughty, "Come on, it's not THAT hard!"
Thanks for saying that. I'm all for saving the planet, but some people get so narrow-minded in their focus, and think that what they do is the ultimate answer. I was recently scolded by a woman who was being all proud of herself because she started riding her bike to work, and I said that it wasn't possible for me. "Oh, you could if you tried." "No, really, I have to transport too many things to reasonably put them on a bike." "Oh, you could cut down on what you carry a lot, if you tried." "Uh, no, there are times when I have two or three or four computers that I need to transport from one place to another. That isn't practical on a bicycle." No matter how I explained it, I was evil because I wasn't trying hard enough to make it possible for me to ride a bike. Never mind that I average 4000 miles A YEAR on my car, including work, fun and errands.
Local food is the same thing. If there was local produce available in the winter, I would certainly consider it, depending on price, quality and the rest of what I consider when I buy food products. But I just haven't seen local produce anywhere in the late fall through spring in this area. I suppose I could drive 30-45 miles one way and scour the stores in a larger metropolitan area, but somehow I don't think that adding that many travel miles to my vehicle to find a few pounds of local carrots is in the spirit of buying local.
Not only would the food distribution have to change to make buying local possible, the farmers would also have to change. Many of the local farms here specialize in things like tomatoes, corn, and canteloupe because they grow well and sell well. Many of them also plant some other things, like carrots, beets, potatoes, because they want to round out their offerings. If they added more root veggies, they'd have to cut back on the local specialties. Probably not the best idea for them, economically.
dbcurrie at 5:30PM on 09/01/08
Here, in northern California locavorism is 100% possible. The only things one would have to do without are some spices, tea and coffee. We have a certified organic farmer's market that is open year-round. I have tomatoes ripening on the vine until Thanksgiving every year, and Christmas some years. (I will admit that they get rather mealy at the end. Even so, they are still better than anything at the grocery store.)
The only fly in the locavore soup is the premium price one must pay. For some this is no big deal, for others it is an impossibility.
Calichef at 8:13PM on 09/01/08
who are these individuals being scolded? i haven't seen that anywhere, but i don't really keep up with the locavore blogosphere.
al oof at 12:32PM on 09/08/08