Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Pollan on making exceptions to eating local

Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food) spoke to a UC Berkely audience about eating local but not making a religion of it. From an article at InsideBayArea by San Francisco-area chef Aaron French:

While [Pollan] recommends shopping at farmers markets and growing your own food, he sees plenty of justifiable exceptions to the locavore's mantra of only eating foods produced as close to home as possible.The energy it takes to transport food can be offset by a number of other complicated factors.

"I don't think we should buy all-local anyway," says Pollan, who says he is reluctant to give up his Italian-produced pasta.

Asked how he expected economically challenged people to afford the high cost of natural foods, he admits, "It's hard to grow good food and we don't pay enough." Another attendee raised the argument of saving time; a tempting byproduct of convenience foods."We now spend an average of two hours a day on the Internet," he says, "compared with less than 1½ hours per day shopping, preparing, eating and cleaning up our three meals a day. It's simply a matter of reversing our priorities."

How many people will value good food over cheap, convenient food? This is an issue I expect to come to a head this year, as the cost of our food continues to rise. From the Boston Globe:

Many analysts expect consumers to keep paying more for food. Wholesale food prices, an indicator of where supermarket prices are headed, rose last month at the fastest rate since 2003, with egg prices jumping 60 percent from a year ago, pasta products 30 percent, and fruits and vegetables 20 percent, according to the Labor Department.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My eating conclusions are pretty much along the lines of Pollans but I am trying to do more local. I have to admit I have not read "In Defense of Food" yet and I am such a Pollan fan, shame on me! I am waiting until I can sit out on the porch in the eve and enjoy it.

"How many people will value good food over cheap, convenient food? Good question. I think the number is growing but there are still a lot of mindless drones out there.

I have heard the cost increases other places also but have not seen a lot of increase when I buy. I have heard milk is way up but I don't buy it, perhaps it has not trickled down yet. Good reason to grow more, I planted half the spring lettuce box on Sunday, going to put peas in when/if it stops raining. I am really going to push doing a better job with the garden this spring. More beds, more variety, plant earlier, pay more attention.

I am curious if seed and plant start suppliers sales are up?

valereee said...

In Defense of Food is great! And it's an easy read, nowhere near as hefty as Omnivore's Dilemma. I seldom buy books -- I try to use the library as often as I can -- but this is one that after finishing my library copy, I bought.