Kitchen Gardeners International: Fresh, local foods attract fresh scrutiny

To say that local foods are being attacked would be too strong a word, but there's definitely a challenge under way. Two recent articles about them in the New York Times suggest that we're heading into a new phase of the local foods revolution, a phase where there'll be more questions about the ramifications of more people eating locally-based diets.

The two Times articles say essentially the same thing in different ways: just because a food is more local doesn't make it more sustainable. The first appeared in the business section and cites new, yet incomplete research being conducted in California that is expected to show that some industrially grown produce may have a smaller carbon footprint than its local counterpart. The second appeared in the opinion pages and was, frankly, more annoying in its smug tone and its choice of examples (bananas and potato chips).

Annoying or not, these articles are hopeful in that they show that local foods are continuing to move toward the center of the media's plate. To read KGI's response, see the letter to the editor linked and pasted below. As you'll see, we have our own view of what's next for the local foods movement (hint: it's about to get "localer").

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/business/16backpage.html

To the Editor:

Re “If It’s Fresh and Local, Is It Always Greener?” (The Feed, Dec. 9), about the carbon footprint of food transportation:

If “local” is the “new organic” when it comes to food, then what is the “new local”? I would like to suggest that the next generation of local eaters will not only have green values, but also green thumbs.

The article pointed out the complexity of determining food’s true carbon footprint. No post-graduate degree is needed to calculate the “food miles” of home-grown produce; a tape measure works just fine.

Roger Doiron
Scarborough, Me., Dec. 10

The writer is founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit network of home gardeners.

Posted by KGI on December 10, 2007 10:56 AM to Kitchen Gardeners International
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