The Year of Eating Locally
The professor of the class which follows ours (Dr. Scott, Criminal Justice Department) saw that we were talking about Deep Economy and wondered what you guys think of it. I told him that you have had a range of reactions, from thinking that it was hysterical to thinking that it was boring to thinking that it was on the mark.
He said that his reaction is (and I’m capturing the spirit though not the exact wording) that it opens the reader’s eyes to some terrifying news. It brings you up short. It makes you think about what you are doing and about how fast our lives could change for the worse.
Care to share your reactions here in your own words?
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After reading McKibben and hearing our discussion today, I had questions about two of the reasons why to buy local, so I thought I’d post them on the blog:
Why support the local economy?
On reason McKibben lists for buying locally is to support the local economy. He explains that the plantation farmers get hardly any profit from the food they grow and in class, we talked about how these farmers cannot become self-sustaining because the corporations they work for.
It seems to me that buying locally takes money away from these people and keeps it in my region. Should I care more about a farmer because of his/her proximity to me? It seems as though these people need our money more. Additionally, food purchases are not taxed (at least in NY), which means the money we spend on our food does not come back and benefit us in the form of government support of our community. I don’t really see why supporting the local economy is a reason to buy locally.
Concern for the environment:
McKibbin explains his view that oil has replaced people in the agriculture industry, and how that comes with repercussions. Farming and transporting food requires burning and using oil. We are consuming a natural resource and we are putting carbon dioxide into the air, contributing to global warming. By buying locally, we eliminate the pollution from transportation costs.
But McKibbin stops here, and I wonder why. If one of the reasons to buy locally is to reduce the effect on the environment, why not only farm the foods that are the most efficient (use the least crude oil)? This argument seems contradictory.
Posted October 1, 2008, 7:30 am