The Locavore's Dilemma

When I walk past the “new books” section on the 3^rd floor of Case I usually walk right by without stopping for even a second to look at any of the newly acquired books, however, yesterday was an exception. A brightly colored book with fruits and veggies on the front caught my eye and I couldn’t help but walk over to it to take a closer look. I picked up The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-Mile Diet (by Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu) and was immediately interested. After checking out this book and flipping through it for a few minutes, I can’t wait to read this book over a break when I finally have some free time. Thus far I’ve only read the inside cover, intro and conclusion, but I’ve learned that this book (whose title is a play on Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma) attempts to dismantle “myths” that “sustainable farming” and “local agriculture” are the way to solve all of the problems with our modern food supply system. The authors continuously claim that “eating globally, not only locally, is the way to save the planet.”

The issues raised in this book, many of which we have discussed in class, are something that I have personally been struggling with. Whether or not I should try to limit my diet to local, “sustainably grown” food and eliminate food which comes from much farther away is a hard question to answer when I consider my day to day eating habits. That is not to say that I am not thoroughly enjoying my weekly share of organic locally grown vegetables form Common Thread and or that I do not agree with many of the draws of the “lovavore” movement—but I would be lying if I told you that I don’t enjoy buying fresh produce at Price Chopper during the winter and other foods that are not readily available in upstate New York. Additionally, growing up in a household in which my mother’s very job is to travel the world looking for interesting, exotic and affordable food products and bring them back to the United States further complicates this issue for me. I can’t imagine going home for Thanksgiving and telling my mother that I refused to eat many of her products because they are not locally grown or produced…

My personal life aside, I guess I was just surprised to pick up a book that was so anti-local considering how trendy local food is today. The authors say that they hope that “Buy Local” will be replaced with the slogan “Buy Global—The Planet is Our Garden!” in the near future. I don’t know about you guys, but I really can’t imagine the allure of buying local food disappearing anytime soon and can definitely not see “Buy Global” being the new “Buy Local,” because of the sheer trendiness of the movement right now. I hope to find time to thoroughly read this book in the near future because I’m curious to see if Desrochers and Shimizu’s argument is actually persuasive.