Pitfalls of Locavorism
E.C. Pasour, Jr.
Desrochers and Shimizu have produced an interesting and highly readable analysis of what is called locavorism--the idea that an ever increasing portion of our food supply should be produced close to those who consume it. Blake Hurst, a commercial farmer and current president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, sets the tone for what follows in the Preface to The Locavore's Dilemma. It is Hurst's contention that this book attacking the tenets of locavorism would not have been necessary in a more rational world. However, it is clear that the book was needed-- locavorism is accepted "hook, line, and sinker" by the current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture: "In a perfect world, everything that was sold, everything that was purchased and consumed would be local, so the economy would receive the benefit of that" (p.5, my emphasis). This ignores the importance of comparative advantage and trade--including international trade. Everything we eat in the United States, including exotic tropical fruits, can be produced domestically. Cost considerations aside, climatic conditions can be simulated for any place in the world! The practical question is which foods should be produced locally and which should be shipped in from other areas of the U.S. or other countries?
Locavorism emphasizes the shortcomings of high tech agriculture. At the same time, it stresses sustainable, organic, local, and ethical initiatives in food production and marketing. Most of the book is devoted to rebutting what the authors identify as five myths of locavorism: (1) it nurtures social capital; (2) it delivers a free lunch; (3) it heals the earth, (4) it increases food security, and (5) it offers tastier, more nutritious, and safer food.
Locavorism fundamentally discounts the importance of the middleman in marketing. Instead of a free lunch, the authors show that locavorism, when contrasted with a global food system, would result in higher costs, more expensive food, increased waste, increased poverty, and less food safety.
The authors so effectively refute the concept of food miles--the distance from where food is produced to where it is consumed-- as a measure of production and marketing efficiency that Blake Hurst suggests "the idea will never again rear its ugly head in polite company...." The authors also analyze, and find wanting, the emphasis on organic food production in local food initiatives.
In rebutting the view that locavorism is more ethical, more attention could have been devoted to the advantages of trade to people in other countries. A global food system lowers food costs to consumers and increases incomes of farmers in distant lands--many if not most of whom have lower incomes compared to people in the United States. Moreover, the idea that locavorism is superior from an ethical standpoint because buying local fosters ties within the community that bind local people together is also suspect. Trade connects us with people in far-away lands, while parochialism encourages xenophobia, turning locals against distant people--hardly an ethical virtue!
No attention is given in the book to the concept of sustainability--another widely accepted idea in the local food movement--that deserves the same scrutiny the authors give to other aspects of locavorism.
Desrochers and Shimizu have no problem with pick your own operations and other types of marketing for locally produced seasonal fruits and vegetables, including nearby stores and restaurants. Many of us, including the authors, knowingly, sometimes pay more for such produce taking into account the tradeoff between cost and subjective attributes of quality, including taste, freshness, etc. A public policy issue arises, however, when local food proponents achieve government mandates for schools, prisons, and other public institutions to purchase pricier locally produced food. Such efforts are fostered by "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food", "Community Supported Agriculture," and other USDA subsidized initiatives that support locavorism.
Closely related, I have a small quibble with the title The Locavore's Dilemma. A dilemma is a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is practically acceptable. For the dedicated locavore who is fully convinced of the merits of the local food movement, there is no dilemma--it is instead an unrecognized dilemma.
It is ironic that it took two Canadians to write this much-needed book about locavorism whose tenets have been widely accepted in the United States but have received little attention by U.S. agricultural economists.
The reviewer acknowledges and appreciates helpful comments by Thomas Grennes on an earlier version of this review.
