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Interesting article in the New York Times this morning, about a subject we've all been hearing about a lot: the environmental effects of global food shipping. Not only are we eating food imported from far away places when it's unavailable or not in season here, but we're actually shipping lemons from Argentina to the citrus-rich south of Spain, sending Norwegian cod to China to be made into fillets and shipped back to Norway again. And we're starting to pay the cost in terms of global warming from the carbon emissions from all that shipping.
So maybe it's time to pay the financial cost as well, some economists say, in the form of taxes and carbon offsets for shippers and shoppers alike. While neither airplanes or ocean freighters are currently taxed for fuel used for international travel and transport of good, many people think it's time to end these tax breaks.
Well, that doesn't sound like a bad plan to me, but the question of imported foods and carbon emissions still present a conundrum for those of us who really love to eat (I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in any 100-mile diet that doesn't involve chocolate or coffee) and care about the environment. How do you green foodies out there deal with this issue?
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4-26-2008 @6:16PM Ed said... Yeah, if the diet doesn't have coffee I'm not going on it. I don't generally check where my food comes from. Up til global warming became something I was aware of, imported food had an extra edge because it was assumed to be 'oh so good' otherwise why would they go to all the trouble of importing it? (Not the best logic I admit.)
I did read somewhere though, that food that is shipped overseas might not be as bad as local stuff in that big old container ships are relatively carbon efficient.
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4-26-2008 @6:19PM Melissa A. said... Well, if you can't or don't want to eat only local, you can always support companies that do good in some way, like buying only fair trade coffee and chocolate, for instance.
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4-26-2008 @6:19PM Peter said... Issue? I say BUNK!
But here's how you "deal" with it: buy everything that you possibly can locally and supplement it with imported products and produce... and for goodness sake, grow your own herbs! It's not difficult, even for city dwellers. And if you think about it, do you really want those nasty tomatoes you get in the middle of winter? They are made to ship, not made to taste good. Blech! So buy what is in season no matter what the time of year.
In a nutshell, support your local farmer or farmers market... you, your family and your community will be much better off because of it.
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4-26-2008 @6:31PM Dr. Electro said... I do my best to buy local. But being on fixed income is a problem. I once thought $300.00 a month should feed the two of us very nicely. Not so any more and the prices just keep on rising.
Some of the places, like Wild Oats and Sunflower Market to name just two, who feature locally produced foods are priced too high for us. When the real farmer's markets repoen this Summer we will definitely be going.
One thing I have noticed since moving to Albuquerque: We shop at Wal-Mart because of the prices mostly. We also shop at a little local fruit and veggie market just up the street. The local guy has little to choose from but his prices are always the lowest. I buy my oranges and green chiles from him. The odd thing is that supposedly the same chiles, New Mexico produce, go for under a dollar a pound at the local guy but have soared to $2.34 a pound at Wal-Mart! We love green chiles, especially for breakfast. So it's worth walking seven blocks to the local produce guy to save that buck-thirty-five a pound!
We still haven't found a reliable source of local meats. We can buy from http://www.sharecolorado.com and get guaranteed local (okay from one state away) foods but you have to wait for delivery of your purchases. Buying online is convenient but picking up the food is not.
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4-26-2008 @6:53PM Alex said... Eat seasonal - no conundrum. Things like coffee can be shipped. Things like asparagus have to be air freighted. It's just not that difficult.
In addition, the local stuff is always loads cheaper. No brainer, all round.
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4-26-2008 @9:20PM wescraig said... Compare the tax breaks offered for jet fuel with the barriers in place that discourage local food: "My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01hedin.html
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5-14-2008 @6:53PM Leigh said... It's been awhile since this happened, so I don't have any links about it anymore, but when the US govt decided to open up import of asparagus from South America, many of our local farmers quit growing it. They couldn't compete with the prices. Now the farmers that do grow it in Washington, once only behind California in asparagus production, export most of their asparagus to Japan and Europe.
So, we ship asparagus 1,000s of miles here to eat, and export the asparagus that we grow ourselves to the other side of the world. Who does this make sense to?!
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