Lately, in strident conversations with friends, I’ve noticed myself returning to a particular viewpoint. For ease of use, let’s call it the “imagine everyone lived that way” view. When my friends discuss locavorism or transportation one of the first things I try to do do is scale the conversation to infinite participants and see where it breaks; not so that I can pooh-pooh the idea, mind you, but so that we can actually scratch below the surface and have a meaningful engagement around the topic. How do people in arid landscapes practice locavorism when their climates are being impacted by industrialized nations, their people are being starved by oppressive regimes, and there’s no reliable water? What do they do? Sounds like a job for “evil agribusiness” to me.
These types of conversations make many of my friends uncomfortable. That’s understandable considering that most of them live pretty well with generally high-paying jobs. They are perfectly content to spout the newest buzzword, beatifically discuss the merits of said newest trend, and go about their latte-hazed days. Many I know suffer from a self-centered knee-jerk liberalism. They really feel for the plight of everybody, but they do so in a way that’s skewed towards their own self-interest. Hey, I love locavorism because I live in Seattle and have access to some of the most outstanding produce and seafood on the planet. I wouldn’t feel the same way if I lived in Sudan.
I love my friends, I do. This isn’t about them, per se, but more about what see when I look at my observable universe and I expand outward from there. No prescription, just observation.
How’s all that for a really discursive means of getting to the fact that I really love this rehabilitated house project in Normandy, France? Franklin Azzi architects took a broken down old farmhouse and renovated it, largely in its existing footprint. Isn’t it refreshing when people who can afford to live large, don’t?
Before
After
For more on this project (including interior shots), see the following posts:
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Eric,
While I tend to agree with you liberal friends, myself being one of them, that eating locally is probably the best for the environment and your health. There are many reasons for this, which I am sure you have been bashed with repeatedly, ie: less energy to transport food, know your farmer/know your food, genetic modification, etc. etc.
But I totally, completely agree with you that it is easy to be that way when your basic needs are taken care of. Moreover the problems which we face today, in my opinion, all stem from the same problem…overpopulation and limited resources. How does this have to do with eating locally. Well glad you asked…if you look back at the population growth of the US/global over the last 200 years you will notice that population began to grow more rapidly at 2 times. 1) Agricultural revolution and 2) Industrial revolution. Why? “evil agriculture business” was able to grow more food and transport it. The result is that the land can support more people. Without food transportation the way it is now, millions would die. Period. Not sure how your (being me) liberal friends would feel about everyone eating locally, and the result being massive deaths from starvation.
All said, I do eat as much as possible from local producers and organic, and I have a million reasons (OK would you buy 100) why. Which maybe we can discuss over a locally brewed beer!
You’re imagining of every choice, as if were to be selected by everyone, reminds me of Kant’s Categorical Imperative.
Hmm… Would it be a safe bet to replace The Sudan in your argument with the third world?
It seems to me that you’ve gotten this backwards. Part of the reason the third world is the way it is, is due to a huge portion of agricultural lands in the third world being owned by 1st world multi-national corporations and the food grown there being exported to the first world.
Corn and soy beans are grown on slash and burned land in the Amazon to feed American cattle. Land that could support a native population (and produce a little trade) in a sustainable manner forever is used up and destroyed in a couple of years.
Mangrove swamps in SE Asia that could provide fish and timber for native populations are cut down and turned into shrimp and prawn farms for export and again they’re used up and the land is destroyed in only a few years.
Same deal with fisheries. The third world can’t police their waters so factory trawlers from companies like Tyson are free to invade their waters and wipe out their fisheries (that’s why we have Somali pirates).
I’m not against global trade, but as it is currently done it’s all gain for the first world and all pain for the third. Being as localvore and practical and making informed choices when buying products from the third world could go a long way in helping fix this trade/power imbalance.
Hey Michael,
Thanks for writing. Looking back at my post, I realize now why it provoked the response from you it did but I don’t think we disagree (or that my original post is backwards). My meta-point is that locavorisim doesn’t scale to support agriculture for the burgeoning population of the planet. There are places, for reasons you have cited, like the Sudan, where global corporations have stripped the land of value and left populations that cannot provide food for themselves. Acknowledged. Point scored. But locavorism isn’t a solution to their problems. Something less ideal and not rooted in corporate greed (perhaps even anti-corporate) is required to address their problems. I’m not sure what that is but I suspect that it involves growing crops that can be harvested en masse and used to meet basic nutritional needs of large groups of people (that was the point I was making about agribusiness). Like it or not, and I’m mostly in the camp of the latter, agribusiness currently holds the keys to many high-yielding, full-nutrition crops. Until I see locavores growing their own foods and spices and shipping them all overseas to people who could get greater use out of them, I still think it’s a way to make people feel better about their habits without actually doing anything to short-circuit a broken system. Either that or start working on the overpopulation problem. Your choice.
P.S. We grow our own herbs, spices and lettuce. I love it.