The Locavore's Dilemma (30 page)

Traversing the middle part of the United States, I got the opportunity to visit once thriving Native American settlements (Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and the Cahokia Mounds) where the local inhabitants had obviously belonged to wider trading and cultural networks. I experienced a wide array of agricultural landscapes: pasturelands in the Shenandoah Valley and Wyoming; apple orchards in Virginia; dairy
farms in Wisconsin; wheat fields in Montana; cotton fields in Georgia; abandoned tobacco fields in North Carolina that had reverted to forests; and many other agricultural landscapes. Most impressive, though, was the sea of corn that surrounded us from Ohio to North Dakota. To locavores and food activists this is probably the most despicable part of America, but I couldn't help but think how much worse off we would all be without it—and be thoroughly impressed by how much of an agricultural powerhouse the United States is.

Americans seem to take their extraordinary agricultural sector for granted and, in my experience, are typically unable to imagine that sometimes things can go horribly wrong. I never experienced hunger myself, but my parents did. My father was born in Tokyo in 1936 and my mother in Kyushu in 1941. They both suffered through the deprivations of the Second World War and its aftermath. As a child, my father, like many others, was sent away to the Japanese countryside in order to escape the firebombing of his city. To this day he can't stand kabocha squashes and sweet potatoes, as these were the only foods available to him—and even then, he was not fed the sweet potato itself but the vines. My mother told me more times than I care to remember that one of her dreams as a child was to get the opportunity to eat a full bowl of rice. She was the youngest of ten children, only five of whom made it to the age of 20. One of my surviving aunts, severely malnourished as a child, suffered significant rheumatism and osteoporosis for the rest of her life as a result.

True, many other people have had it worse than the Japanese and the members of my family. Yet, it seems that one of the main lessons to be learned from my native country's experience over the last century and a half is that pushes towards autarkic food policies can only result in disaster. As we wrote in the book—and as many other people have said before us—if goods don't cross borders, armies eventually will. My parent's generation is living proof that what militaristic people thought they could only achieve by force can be accomplished much more effectively and successfully through free trade and peace. And, just as important,
globalization affords people all kinds of possibilities. About half a century ago, my parents never imagined how abundant and affordable their future food supply would turn out to be (let alone that one of their children would marry a foreigner and move to Canada).

As the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker observes in
The Better Angels of Our Nature
, we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence. This blessed state of affairs, though, was a long time coming and was only made possible through the worldwide exchange of products, resources, ideas, and culture. Despite our current economic woes, we have almost vanquished famine. Most of us live longer, healthier, safer, and more enjoyable lives than previous generations. It seems incumbent upon us to put forward some constructive proposals to improve the global food supply chain rather than turn back the clock to some imagined era of pastoral bliss that most people escaped from when given the opportunity. Growing more and better quality food, and doing so ever more efficiently, healthily, safely, and sustainably is what we should aim for.

Food cosmopolitanism is in everybody's and the planet's best interest. It is my hope that “Buy Local” will soon be replaced by the more desirable slogan, “Buy Global—The Planet Is Our Garden!”

 

—
Hiroko Shimizu

1
Beverly Bell. 2010. “Groups around the US Join Haitian Farmers in Protesting ‘Donation' of Monsanto Seeds.”
Other Worlds
(June 4)
http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/groups-around-us-join-haitian-farmers-protesting-donation-monsanto-seeds
.

2
Beverly Bell. 2010. “Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds.”
Other Worlds
(May 17)
http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/haitian-farmers-commit-burning-monsanto-hybrid-seeds
.

3
Ingo Potrykus. 2010. “Regulation must be Revolutionized.”
Nature
466: 561.

4
Matthew Ridley. 2011. “Why Deny Biotech to a Hungry Africa?”
Wall Street Journal
(December 10)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204770404577080264187783818.html
.

1
According to a rough estimate, Japanese people suffered on average one year of famine out of seven between 600 AD and 1885. The last major famine to hit the islands occurred in the 1830s (see Osamu Saito. 2002. “The Frequency of Famines as Demographic Correctives in the Japanese Past.” In Tim Dyson and Cormac Ó Gráda (eds).
Famine Demography: Perspectives from the Past and Present
. Oxford University Press, pp. 218–239). For readers fluent in Japanese, see the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries discussion of what present day self-sufficiency would entail in terms of available food supply at
http://www.maff.go.jp/j/zyukyu/index.html
.

2
We discuss these issues in much greater detail in chapter 4.

3
See their “Enterprise Africa” initiative
http://mercatus.org/enterprise-africa
.

4
Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu. 2008.
Yes, We Have No Bananas. A Critique of the “Food Miles” Perspective
. Mercatus Policy Series Primer no. 8, Mercatus Center (George Mason University)
http://mercatus.org/publication/yes-we-have-no-bananas-critique-food-miles-perspective?id=24612
.

5
On average, farmers in African countries use 8 kilograms of synthetic fertilizers per hectare as opposed to 107 kilograms in the developing world as a whole.

6
Bruce Gardner. 2003. “U.S. Agriculture in the Twentieth Century”. In Robert Whaples (ed.)
EH.Net Encyclopedia
http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/gardner.agriculture.us
.

7
Malnutrition or undernutrition refers to either or both a calorie and micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) deficit. Stunting occurs when an individual's stature is too short relative to his or her age and wasting when his or her weight is too low. For a more detailed introduction to the topic and the latest statistics on world hunger, see the “Hunger Portal” of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations at
http://www.fao.org/hunger/en/
.

1
Columella's two millennia–old text is freely available at
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Columella/de_Re_Rustica/Praefatio*.html #ref1
.

2
Pépin has discussed his failed doctoral proposal in a few venues, such as in Grace Russo Bullaro. 2009. “Blue Collar, White Hat: The Working Class Origins of Celebrity Superstar Jacques Pepin.”
The Columbia Journal of American Studies
, Volume 9 (Fall), pp. 28–47
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cjas/Jacques_Pepin.html
.

3
Pollan's website is at
http://michaelpollan.com/
For an online synthesis of his policy thinking, see Michael Pollan. 2008. “Farmer in Chief.”
New York Times Magazine
(October 9)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html
.

4
As of this writing, less than 0.6% of the U.S. population was employed as full-time farmers while several others supplemented their farm production income with other off-farms sources of revenue. For a concise portrait of the evolution of this sector in the context of the overall U.S. economy, see Carolyn Dimitri, Anne Effland, and Neilson Conklin. 2005.
The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy
. Electronic Information Bulletin No. 3, USDA
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib3/eib3.htm
. The reference to lawyers is borrowed from Peter C. Timmer. 2009.
A World without Agriculture? The Historical Paradox of Agricultural Development
. Development Policy Outlook, American
Enterprise Institute, May
http://www.aei.org/docLib/01%20DPO%20May%202009g.pdf
.

5
In essence, vitalism is the belief that a molecule produced in a bird's or a cow's stomach is inherently superior to a chemically identical molecule produced through industrial processes.

6
Professor Tom Perrault, Department of Geography, Syracuse University, course syllabus for GEO 400: Food: A Critical Geography
https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/uploadedFiles/faculty/geo/Food.pdf
.

7
GRAIN (Genetic Resources Action International). 2008. “Making a Killing from Hunger”
Against the Grain
(April)
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=39
.

8
Michael Pollan. 2008. “Farmer in Chief.”
New York Times Magazine
(October 9)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html
.

9
The label “SOLE food” is usually traced back to a 2006 entry on the Ethi-curean blog.

10
A typical statement to this effect is Bryan Walsh. 2009. “Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food,”
Time
(August 21)
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1917458,00.html
See also John Ikerd. 2005. “Eating Local: A Matter of Integrity” Paper presented at the at
The Eat Local Challenge
(Eco Trust, Portland, OR), June 2, available at
http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj/papers/Alabama-Eat%20Local.htm
.

11
Of course, political problems still prevent nearly one individual in seven from eating a satisfactory diet, but political problems rather than food production per se are the real cause of this situation.

12
The terms “localvorism” and “localvores” are also used by some activists. Our choice of “locavore” was motivated by its more common usage and its selection as “word of the year” by the
New Oxford American Dictionary
in 2007.

13
Anonymous. 2009. “Tom Vilsack, The New Face Of Agriculture.”
The Washington Post
(February 11)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/02/10/ST2009021002624.html
.

14
News Desk. 2011. “USDA Rule Encourages Local Food for School Meals.”
Food Safety News
(April 29)
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/04/usda-rule-to-encourage-local-food-for-school-meals/
.

15
Sherrod Brown. 2011. “Brown Introduces Bill to Expand Markets for Farmers and Increase Access to Local Foods Legislation Would Boost Ohio's Rural Economy, Improve Consumer Access to Healthy, Fresh Foods.” Press Release, Senator Sherrod Brown Office
http://brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press_releases/release/?id=62ee64a8-f401-4387-9b2f-ab35ed0fbacc
.

16
Danna Staaf. 2011. “West Coast Locavores Should Turn Teuthovore.”
Science 2.0
(May 25)
http://www.science20.com/squid_day/west_coast_locavores_should_turn_teuthovore-79384
.

17
For a concise presentation of these alleged advantages from a proponent of this shopping lifestyle, see Molly Watson.
Eight Reasons to Eat Local Foods. Straight-Forward Benefits of Eating Local Foods
.
About.com
Guide
http://local-foods.about.com/od/finduselocalfoods/tp/5-Reasons-to-Eat-Local-Foods.htm
For a more detailed discussion of these arguments, see Steve Martinez, Michael Hand, Michelle Da Pra, Susan Pollack, Katherine Ralston, Travis Smith, Stephen Vogel, Shellye Clark, Luanne Lohr, Sarah Low and Constance Newman. 2010.
Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, and Issues
. Economic Research Report #97. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR97/ERR97.pdf
.

18
Blake Hurst. 2009. “The Omnivore's Delusion: Against the Agri-Intellectuals.”
The American
(July 30)
http://www.american.com/archive/2009/july/the-omnivore2019s-delusion-against-the-agri-intellectuals/
.

19
Joe Pompeo. 2009 “The Foodiots.”
New York Observer
(September 22)
http://www.observer.com/2009/food-amp-drink/foodiots
.

20
Stephen Budiansky. 2010. “Math Lessons for Locavores.”
New York Times
(August 19)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/opinion/20budiansky.html
.

21
Ronald Bailey. 2008. “The Food Miles Mistake: Saving the Planet by Eating New Zealand Apples.”
Reason.com
(November 28)
http://reason.com/archives/2008/11/04/the-food-miles-mistake
.