LOCAL FOOD

WHY IT'S BEST TO EAT LOCAL, SEASONAL FOOD

Joan Gussow is among the first people who advocated eating locally and seasonally for environmental reasons. Now professor emeritus of Teachers College in New York City, she has written several books including the insightful Chicken Little, Tomato Sauce and Agriculture. Gussow first advocated eating locally in the late 1970s as a means of energy conservation. She observed that it takes a lot of gas and oil to transport food thousands of miles, and it takes a lot more to keep it cold for all that distance. So-called fresh food transported long distances can take ten or more days to reach your dinner table from the time it is harvested, and nutrients are lost in the process. Locally produced food would not need to be refrigerated for such long periods of time nor would it need to be shipped.

Gussow believes there are other consequences of transporting food; long distances, especially importing it from Third World countries. Even if the food is inexpensive from such countries those who grow it are so poorly paid that they often can't afford to buy enough to eat for themselves. Another problem with importing food from Third World countries is The Circle of Poison phenomenon. This occurs when U.S. companies ship pesticides banned in the U.S. to Third World countries, where it is applied to the food and then shipped back to U.S. consumers.

Another big benefit of eating locally, Gussow believes, is that we see for ourselves how the land and water are treated by the farmers. The hidden costs of industrial agriculture, which the consumer usually doesn't see—overuse of water, chemicals, and loss of cropland, which ultimately threatens the food supply—would be right under our noses. The out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality would necessarily change.

Eating locally will also support local farmers and keep them skilled. Gussow believes that the underlying point is that "in the course of getting food for ourselves we must try to stop letting so many evils be done in our name in places we know nothing about."

How should we define local? According to Joan Gussow the most commonsense principle to follow is that the fewer miles the food travels from the farm to your table, the better.

Books by Joan Gussow:

The Nutrition Debate : Sorting Out Some Answers

Chicken Little, Tomato Sauce and Agriculture : Who Will Produce Tomorrow's Food?

This Organic Life : Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader