Back in 2008, the mantra to “eat local” collided head on with nutritionists telling us to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Anyone living in a northern climate knows that you do not have many fresh fruits or vegetables year-round – unless the fruits and vegetables are transported from elsewhere. Those of us living in 4-season climates immediately saw the disconnect and contradiction in the “experts'” demands.
Most foods we eat are transported hundreds of miles from farms and ranches to the grocery store – and some are transported many thousands of miles (such as bananas and other crops grown in Central and South America for markets throughout the Americas). In much of the western half of the U.S., the arid west, the land is dry, rocky and capable of growing only grasses and juniper bushes, sage brush and other arid, non-human eatable plants.
The “demand” to eat local collides head on with the “demand” to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. This demand seems to be promoted by people living in places like California, which has an astounding 10-month long growing season each year. But that long growth season is not typical for most of the country.
Food transportation is a huge carbon burden | Popular Science (popsci.com)
Eventually, to achieve all of the various activist’s goals – reducing carbon emissions, eating local, eating more fruits and vegetables, discontinue eating meat and getting the necessary nutrients – you’ll need an app or spreadsheet model with an optimization algorithm to find an optimal solution minimizing carbon emissions, transportation, food processing – while delivering necessary nutrients and the approved set of foods.
Can you imagine having to consult a computer model for every meal? That’s what proponents are suggesting – because you cannot satisfy all of the activists’ demands without computed models.
Instead, the experts tell us to merely buy local, and eat, in season fruits and vegetables only. Try eating in season fruits and vegetables in Minnesota in February?
In the 19th century, meat was a common staple in the winter months – whether freshly killed or having been cured by drying, salting or made into sausage. But today, we are not supposed to eat so much meat. Which means, either transported fresh foods, or frozen vegetables (something that came of age after WW2) or canned vegetables (something that came of age in the late 19th century) – those options also take much energy.
Thus, we are supposed eat fresh fruits and vegetables, year round and avoid eating meat – while living in climates where the growing season is just six months. Sure, that makes total sense.
The author of the above story should know better – from the U.S., educated in journalism and environmental studies (“studies” not “science”), studied abroad and now living in the Netherlands. Her bio page says she likes to call out “greenwashing” – yet in the above article, she herself is “greenwashing” with a fantasy about eating local while meeting eating fresh year around. Today she works for One5c, which by it’s own about page, is a global warming activist group – in other words, a propaganda operation.
Stuff like the above is why – after doing tons of stuff to cut our household carbon emissions to 1/10th that of the typical U.S. home, I no longer care about climate initiatives – because they are inconsistent, contradictory, incoherent and doubtfully achieve meaningful and sustainable carbon emission reductions. And let’s not get started on the climate hypocrites … see Parts 1 and 2 in the right column, as well as the link to all the things we’ve done to reduce emissions.
