The Problem With Eating Local
Sep. 5th, 2019 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorI see this argument a lot--that the solution to the environmental issues or racism or any other problem currently inherent to our food supply is to 'eat local'. And I don't really see how this addresses any of those issues.
A large factory farm can be operating locally. In fact, it can be operating locally in many, many places around the world. It could even at times source food locally so that it can sell it to people who want to 'eat local'.
Even if you make sure to avoid large factory farms (keeping in mind that impoverished people in food deserts can rarely afford to do this), there's nothing inherently anti-racist about a small farm using land that is, in many countries, often stolen from natives (eg. in the United States where I live that would be from Native Americans) and exploiting immigrants (especially natives from Mexico, Central, and South America in the US) or preventing natives from subsisting off of this land for the farmer's own personal profit and enrichment.
And I don't see how 'eating local' does anything inherently to address the harmful monocultures in much of the world's farming or the reliance on harmful fertilizers and pesticides or the degradation of local wildlife or the depletion of local aquifers in my or any other country.
This doesn't mean that I think the idea of eating local has no worth, but without addressing the above questions, it seems to me little more than a false panacea to the many and complex issues we face regarding our food supply.
A large factory farm can be operating locally. In fact, it can be operating locally in many, many places around the world. It could even at times source food locally so that it can sell it to people who want to 'eat local'.
Even if you make sure to avoid large factory farms (keeping in mind that impoverished people in food deserts can rarely afford to do this), there's nothing inherently anti-racist about a small farm using land that is, in many countries, often stolen from natives (eg. in the United States where I live that would be from Native Americans) and exploiting immigrants (especially natives from Mexico, Central, and South America in the US) or preventing natives from subsisting off of this land for the farmer's own personal profit and enrichment.
And I don't see how 'eating local' does anything inherently to address the harmful monocultures in much of the world's farming or the reliance on harmful fertilizers and pesticides or the degradation of local wildlife or the depletion of local aquifers in my or any other country.
This doesn't mean that I think the idea of eating local has no worth, but without addressing the above questions, it seems to me little more than a false panacea to the many and complex issues we face regarding our food supply.