Salon.com recently ran an interview of Peter Singer, an ethicist whose latest book “The Way We Eat” examines modern agribusiness and ethics.
In the interview, Singer brings up an interesting point regarding the local food movement:
“California rice is produced using artificial irrigation and fertilizer that involves energy use. Bangladeshi rice takes advantage of the natural flooding of the rivers and doesn’t require artificial irrigation. It also doesn’t involve as much synthetic fertilizer because the rivers wash down nutrients, so it’s significantly less energy intensive to produce. Now, it’s then shipped across the world, but shipping is an extremely fuel-efficient form of transport. You can ship something 10,000 miles for the same amount of fuel necessary to truck it 1,000 miles. So if you’re getting your rice shipped to San Francisco from Bangladesh, fewer fossil fuels were used to get it there than if you bought it in California.”
Of course, part of eating locally is supporting local farmers, artisans, small businesses, and the local economy itself, in addition to reducing the use of fossil fuels. Singer touches on this issue as well:
“My argument is that we should not necessarily buy locally, because if we do, we cut out the opportunity for the poorest countries to trade with us, and agriculture is one of the things they can do, and which can help them develop. The objection to this, which I quote from Brian Halweil, one of the leading advocates of the local movement, is that very little of the money actually gets back to the Kenyan farmer. But my calculations show that even if as little as 2 cents on the dollar gets back to the Kenyan farmer, that could make a bigger difference to the Kenyan grower than an entire dollar would to a local grower. It’s the law of diminishing marginal utility. If you are only earning $300, 2 cents can make a bigger difference to you than a dollar can make to the person earning $30,000.”
Singer reminds readers that sustainable agriculture is more complicated than it seems, balancing myriad issues such as local production and trade, fuel conservation, green farming practices, the fair treatment of animals, fair trade, and so on.
Update: A midwestern reader comments on Singer’s statements regarding the local food movement.
