Eat Local: The Basics

What is the Locavore Movement?

A locavore is someone who eats only local food. In other words, locavores think about the food they buy in terms of “food miles” – how far did the food travel to get to you?

In 2005, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon decided to live for a year on food grown within a 100-mile radius of their home in Vancouver.[1] Here is an excerpt discussing their experience:

“Unable, at first, to find any locally-grown grains, they gave up bread, pasta, and rice. They made turnip “sandwiches” with slices of roasted turnip substituting for the bread, and ate a lot of potatoes. They wouldn’t even eat locally produced, organic, free-range eggs because the hens were fed on grain imported from outside the region. Sometimes, walking into their “local” supermarket, they couldn’t find a single thing to buy. Fortunately, they eventually found a local wheat grower, and although they had to mill it themselves, they were soon joyfully eating pancakes and baking bread.”[2]

In practice, very few people eat exclusively local. But a lot of people will incorporate some non-local foods like chocolate and coffee, while eating local foods whenever they can. That’s what Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon are doing now.

“Locavore” was voted Oxford Word of the Year in 2007 (by Oxford University Press).[3] The Locavore movement had a moment in the mid-late 2000s and, although the term has fizzled since, lots of people still promote “eating local” and supporting the “local food system”.

The Context

The average distance traveled by food consumed in developed nations has increased, largely due to trade globalization. International trade in food quadrupled between 1961 and 2006.[4] In the 1960s, North Americans only ate grapes in June through December, when Californian growers could supply them.[5] Now almost half of grapes eaten in the U.S. are imported, often from countries like Chile.[6]

Domestically produced food is also travelling further: for instance, in the U.S. domestic transportation of grain products increased by 137% between 1978 and 2000.[7] And because of the way distribution systems work in large grocery chains, even if you are buying something produced in a local farm it may have travelled many kilometres to a distribution centre and then back to you. That is because grocery distribution systems are designed to ensure reliability of supply, rather than to minimize transport distances.[8]

Why Eat Local?

Proponents of the locavore movement say that eating local is:

Tastier
More nutritious
Better for the planet – because it reduces fossil fuel use and decreases the environmental harm caused by industrial agriculture
More socially just
Supports local economies

The Slow Food Movement

Slow food is a variation on eating local. It was started in Italy by a leftist named Carlo Petrini in the 1980s. The movement started as a protest against the creation of a McDonald’s at the Spanish steps in Rome.

Slow Food had an “initial aim to defend regional traditions, good food, gastronomic pleasure, and a slow pace of life. […But since then] the movement has evolved to embrace a comprehensive approach to food that recognizes the strong connection between plate, planet, people, politics, and culture.” The slow food movement promotes food that is high quality, environmentally responsible, and fair for agricultural workers. So, the movement today is about resisting supermarkets and big agribusiness, eating seasonally, sustainability, and paying workers fairly. Slow Food has a million members in 160 countries.

Eating Local: What You Can Do

How To Eat Local

Buy a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share. A CSA is basically a subscription service that supports a local farm. You sign up for a CSA share at the beginning of the growing season and the farmer will deliver a box of whatever is ripe and in season, usually on a weekly basis until the end of the growing season. CSAs are good for small farmers because it gives them a level of certainty about what they will earn for the year, which helps them to plan. It is also a good way to try different types of fruits and vegetables that you might not otherwise buy.

Shop at farmers’ markets. Farmers markets are physical markets where farmers sell their food directly to customers. Some markets are open daily during the spring and summer, or even all year round, while others are open once per week. There are more than 8,600 registered farmers markets in the U.S., up from less than 2,000 in 1994. You can find some of the best Canadian farmers’ markets here.

Buy from local, independent grocers. Instead of buying from a supermarket chain, is there a local independent grocer that buys from farms in your area.

Eat seasonally. Seasonal eating means that you eat fresh produce at the time of year that it is naturally ready for harvest in your area. E.g., strawberries in June, tomatoes in August, and squash in October. One way to eat seasonally is to “Cook forward”: plan your meals around what is seasonally available, rather than deciding on a recipe first and then buying the ingredients. You should also get acquainted with what food is in season throughout the year where you live. In the U.S. you can use the Seasonal Food Guide, or in Canada we found this guide.

In winter in the northern hemisphere eating seasonally means lots of root vegetables, whereas in summer there are usually lots of fruit and vegetable options. Those who eat seasonally will often rely on preserved vegetables and fruits over the winter months. So, rather than fresh tomatoes in February they might use canned or sundried. Going to farmers’ markets or joining a CSA are good strategies for eating seasonally.

Support farm-to-table restaurants. The farm-to-table movement has become popular with chefs in the last decade or so. It basically means that restaurants and cafeterias will serve local food through direct acquisition from the producer (e.g. a farmer, winery, fishery). Farm-to-table promotes food traceability, which means that they will often identify the origin of food on menus.

Grow your own food.

Participate in community gardens and other local food events.

Debates About the Ethics of Eating Local

Localism versus Cosmopolitanism

One way to frame the locavore movement is to think about the dichotomy between localism and cosmopolitanism. This is how Lisa Heldke approaches food localism in her contribution to The Philosophy of Food.[9]

Localism sees farms as repositories of knowledge about how best to grow food in a particular place.[10] In the ideal, a local food system means that growers can make the best choices for the land, knowing that community members who share their concerns will support those choices even if it means higher prices for food.[11]Localism also promotes the kinds of justice and democratic trust that can only arise through face-to-face interactions.[12]

Cosmopolitanism is made up of two ideals. The first is universality: the idea that we should take seriously and value all human life. The second is respect for legitimate difference. These values can sometimes clash.[13] Cosmopolitanism also starts from the premise that cultural exchange is inevitable, that all cultures are already mixtures, and that we can learn from diversity.[14] Cosmopolitanism is skeptical of claims that something is “purely local”. They see “[c]laims to purity [..as] the consequences of efforts to sort out Them from Us – to establish the boundaries that enable us to distinguish, for example, Their wheat-eating ways from Our rice-eating ones.”[15] As an example, think about this in terms of the pad Thai robot that Lex talked about on one of our earlier episodes of the podcast.

Another example is the Lucca ordinance. Lucca is a town in Italy that banned restaurants serving foods not considered to be part of that region’s heritage cuisine.[16] At least some localism is culinary racism masquerading as the preservation of an authentic local culture.[17]

But the local food movement is not primarily about policing cultures. Or, at least, there is a version of localism that can also embody cosmopolitan values.

Is Eating Local Better for the Environment?

Sometimes, but not necessarily. A World Watch Institute study found that the average American meal uses up to 17 times more petroleum than a locally-produced meal.[18]

The long distances that food travels are part of the high energy use in the food system. “Food production, processing, manufacturing, distribution, and preparation consumes somewhere between 12 and 20 percent of the U.S. energy supply. […However,] the transportation of food is […] responsible for only 11 percent of the total energy used in the food system.”[19] Compare that with the 26% used in home preparation or the 29% consumed in food processing.[20]

And not all transport has an equivalent environmental impact. Air transport uses twice as much energy per mile as road freight, and 20 times more than transporting food by ship or rail.[21] That means that eating locally is sometimes better for the environment, but it depends on how that local food is produced and how the alternative is transported. For example, if you are buying tomatoes outside the growing season in Canada or the northern U.S., it is usually less emissions intensive to truck the tomatoes from Florida, where they can be grown outside, than to buy from a local farm that used a hydroponic system—especially if the electricity grid in that place uses oil or gas.[22] A British study found that the calculus is similar for tomatoes trucked from Spain outside of the British growing season for tomatoes.[23]

Eating local can be good for the environment, but not always. If you want to eat locally for environmental reasons, focus on seasonality instead of food miles, and pay attention to how non-local food is being shipped.

You might also want to pay attention to:

Eating more plant-based foods,
Buying from sustainable farm operations,
Minimizing food waste, and
Preparing food in a way that uses less energy.

Although these principles aren’t directly about the local, eating local can focus on sustainability when you think about localism in terms of developing trust relationships with producers that are mindful of sustainability.

It’s also easier to think in terms of sustainability when you are buying in an area that you live in and know. Take the example of fisheries. If everyone ate seafood from local fisheries, there would probably be much more political pressure to ensure that fisheries were sustainable.The lack of visibility that comes along with the global food system is a part of the problem, and critics often forget that.

Systemic Inequality in the Food System

One critique of ethical consumption in general, and eating local in particular, is the fact that only a small portion of society is able to afford to eat virtuously.[24] Some people live in food deserts where nutritious food is either not for sale or so overpriced to be beyond reach.[25] Others do not have the disposable income to spend on higher-priced and ethically produced foods.[26] Or they may not have the time, appliances, or knowledge to prepare meals from unprocessed food items.

In other words: “Systemic inequality with respect to food options actively harms those condemned to ingest cheap, readily available fast food, junk food, fruits and vegetables sprayed with pesticides, meat, poultry, and fish fed on grain that has been loaded with antibiotics, and so on.”[27]

From an ethical perspective, ostensibly virtuous food choices made by affluent people cannot be truly seen as virtuous because they occur within a larger context of systemic injustice. To the extent that we ignore this systemic injustice, we are complicit in perpetuating an unjust and harmful system.[28] In other words, just eating local is not enough: you also must actively work to address systemic inequality in the food system.

Is Eating Local Just?

Locavores offer a few different reasons that eating locally is more socially just:

It strengthens local economies
It fosters richer food systems that are based on understanding and trust
It supports endangered family farms

For the first claim, the big question here is whether it is ethical to support local economies specifically. One objection is the idea that we should value all of those who are affected by our actions, regardless of whether they are physically proximate to us or in our community.[29] From that perspective, buying local potentially harms poor communities in developing countries, and that those people may need it more. Worldwide, 2.5 billion people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

This is what Nancy Snow describes as a “tragic dilemma” of eating virtuously: we cannot choose virtuously for ourselves without harming innocent others. When we choose to eat from ethical producers, those who are most directly harmed are those that are forced to participate in agribusiness to make a living.[30]

But this objection depends on whether food exports are good for developing countries—which is a complicated question. The food trade system can have negative consequences for local communities, who lose the ability to feed themselves using the land. It is an irony of our system that many agricultural workers are food insecure. Agriculture workers are also subject to dangerous and exploitative working conditions, including human trafficking. That is why localizing food systems is a pillar of food sovereignty.

I have another problem with this objection. Because if opting out of industrial agriculture is a strategy for transforming our food systems in a way that benefits justice, I think there is not a dilemma at all. It is true that the most immediate harm of not buying factory farmed chicken is to the chicken processor and the chicken farmer that leases its chickens from Tyson. But if buying humane or local food becomes a consumer trend, there are at least two pathways to transforming the system. 1) Consumer preferences makes ethical producers more competitive, which makes the system more just or 2) Public attention on the issue leads to legislative change, which transforms the system.

The other two claims are a bit less controversial. The ideal of fostering a culture of local food, including building trust relationships with providers, can be ethically good.[31]

And supporting family farms instead of agribusiness is a good thing from a human and environmental perspective. Agricultural communities generally have more people living in poverty than metropolitan communities, and the decline of family farming is a major driver of this trend.[32] As an example of this trend: “In 1920, ten different commodities, including fruit and vegetables, were produced on more than half of Iowa’s farms. But by 1997, that had fallen to two: corn and soybeans.”[33] The environmental harms of industrial agriculture, and especially animal agriculture, have been well documented. And working conditions on farms are often quite exploitative.

However, one big problem with this is that buying locally doesn’t really address this harm. Your local producer could be an industrial feedlot or a vegetable farm that exploits migrant laborers. Local is not really the operative value at play here. That is why some people prefer the slow food movement to eating local.

Endnotes

[1] Singer, Peter and Mason, Jim. (2006). The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. Rodale.

[2] Ibid at p.139.

[3] Heldke, Lisa. (2012). Down-Home Global Cooking: A Third Option between Cosmopolitanism and Localism. In D. Kaplan (ed.) The Philosophy of Food. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, pp. 33-51 at p.34.

[4] Singer, Peter and Mason, Jim. (2006). The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. Rodale.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Singer and Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat at p.139.

[19] Singer and Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat at p.145.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Snow, Nancy. (2015). “Food Virtue”: Can We Make Virtuous Food Choices? In J.M. Dieterle (ed.) Just Food: Philosophy, Justice, and Food. London, UK: Rowman and Littlefield 181-194.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ibid.

[27] Ibid at p.189.

[28] Ibid.

[29] Singer and Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat.

[30] Snow, “Food Virtue”.

[31] Singer and Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat.

[32] Ibid.

[33] Ibid at p.142.