Let it be known that local food is poison for the environment. Not only do small farmers pollute more in their pickups than the highly-efficient 18 wheelers hauling avocados from Mexico to Michigan, but independent farms are also glutting the atmosphere with greenhouse gas in their quest to produce tomatoes for the yokels year 'round .
Indeed, The Experts have recently discovered that local farming and eating may be less environmentally friendly than the well-oiled corn, soybean and wheat farms America relies on for its diet staples--high fructose corn syrup, soy protein isolate and enriched, white flour.
According to a recent article in Salon.com ("Is local food really miles better?"), "scientists are now devising methods that attempt to calculate every waft of greenhouse gas for a given food product. That means examining a product's entire 'life cycle,' from fertilization and heating to packaging and storage."
While The Experts haggle over details, let us lay-eaters consider a few things about our food. Four major factors make local farming worthwhile and none of them is green house gas related--the benefits of local eating far outweigh the potentially looming size of Old McDonald's carbon footprint.
1.) Local farming builds community. Those small-time farmers yet unsophisticated in the means of transportation and year-round gardening will only learn how to efficiently grow and transport their food (albeit a short distance) if they are given a fair shot. According to the Environmental Working Group, The U.S. government--ie, taxpayers--gave "66% of crop subsidy benefits to 10% of the beneficiaries of those programs." More than likely, your backyard farmer was not one of them. If you want to help your neighbor more effectively run his business, support him. Furthermore, farmers markets are a glimpse at the good old days, when people gathered in town halls and communal spaces. They are your excuse to visit Main Street once a week to connect in real time with friends and neighbors--instead of staying home and staring into an anonymous online abyss.
2.) Local food tastes better, most of the time. It's impossible to discuss tastes in absolutes, and would be foolhardy to claim that local food always tastes better than imported goods, but by and large, food in season, recently picked and plucked at the right time has a fresher mien, consistency and flavor than food that has traveled thousands of miles. Produce selected to ship is pulled from the vine prematurely, ensuring that it will be tough enough to withstand the journey. There's also an agri-hope of said fruit ripening en route. Don't count on it.
3.) Local farming makes food a process. If you've got no time to procure and prepare food, you're missing out and so is your family. What's more, it's probably your fault: think of all the things you do make time for--eating out at least once a week is probably among them. Cooking is one of the most rewarding things you can do with people, highly enhanced by the investment of time and collaborative effort. There's a reason "breaking bread" comes up so many times in the Bible, and bread broken tastes a lot better when you've baked it. Take time to thoughtfully gather your food, carefully prepare it and eat it with people you love. It will feel like a holiday, without the bickering and high-expectations.
4.) Food equals memories. Whether we like it or not, no peach will appear at a local stand in February. But when one finally does emerge in early summer, the smell and taste are likely to trigger peaches past and all the bucolic associations that come with them: from itchy chins to cobblers and jams. Forgetting what seasons give rise to what produce would be like forgetting that fireworks happen in July or that January is time for "Auld Lang Syne." Food is as important in keeping time as the festivities that mark our calendars. Losing touch with the seasonality of food means forgetting the way people have eaten--and lived--before us.
The impact of eating locally extends far beyond "food miles" or any other measurable data we've been encouraged to count the way dieters count calories. The issues on the table where local food is concerned are of keeping our communities, neighbors, loved ones and culture together over food. In order to respect how precious it is and how delicate our food chain and culinary (cultural) history, we should turn to the most visible, tangible sources of sustenance: the farms around us. Local food producers are ultimately a reflection of those who support them. What kind of neighborhood do you want to live in?