University of Toronto prof says buying local won’t save environment
More bad news for 100-mile dieters: a new study says that local-only eating is impractical and does little to help the environment. The report was released by the Montreal Economic Institute and U of T professor Pierre Desrochers (whose views on locavorism were among Toronto Life’s 25 ideas that are changing the world) and states that people are too focused on the mileage produce travels from farm to store. According to Desrochers, the real problem is that people drive to grocery stores (which emits more greenhouse gases than transporting the food). He also makes the plainly obvious argument that certain places are better at growing certain produce. California’s consistent weather conditions enable the state to grow more strawberries than Ontario, which requires more energy to heat production facilities.
• Will Buying Food Locally Save the Planet? [Montreal Economic Institute]
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/food/university-of-toronto-prof-says-buying-local-wont-save-environment/&title=University of Toronto prof says buying local won’t save environment&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/OntarioStrawberries.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_17855" align="alignleft" width="209" caption="Ontario strawberries: friend or foe? (Photo by Catherine Bulinski)"][/caption]
More bad news for 100-mile dieters: a new study says that local-only eating is impractical and does little to help the environment. The report was released by the Montreal Economic Institute and U of T professor Pierre Desrochers (whose views on locavorism were among Toronto Life’s 25 ideas that are changing the world) and states that people are too focused on the mileage produce travels from farm to store. According to Desrochers, the real problem is that people drive to grocery stores (which emits more greenhouse gases than transporting the food). He also makes the plainly obvious argument that certain places are better at growing certain produce. California’s consistent weather conditions enable the state to grow more strawberries than Ontario, which requires more energy to heat production facilities.
• Will Buying Food Locally Save the Planet? [Montreal Economic Institute]){kind=link}
Finally someone with a little sense an logic!
Well said. Let’s be reasonable, the root of the environmental crisis is somewhat closer to home than the local grocery store or marketplace. Though, perhaps more difficult in the winter months, households should practice growing their own goods on site.
*Where* food comes from, local or imported, is less relevant to the issue of “helping the environment” that *what* food is eaten. By atomizing food choices to greenhouse produced versus field produced strawberries, and not looking at the larger question of finding the most resource efficient and ecologically sustainable way of supplying Vitamin C and other nutrients to a population in a specific location, we miss the opportunity to improve and restore our food systems, wherever they are located.
There’s a glaring assumption he does not make clear: that the 100 mile diet is supposed to change the variety of food we buy and eat. Also, strawberries from Cali at this time of year is awful. Their bland and freakishly big. I much prefer the smaller Ontario strawberries when they’re in season.
Key word of the eating local movement: Eating in season.