After just a handful of years the majority of the United States has become spoiled with our system of widespread supermarkets. And who wouldn't succumb to the awesomeness of say, Wegmans, since any item, even from the far reaches of the earth, are at your fingertips. I cannot help but wonder, is this word spoiled a negative, or positive adaption of our livelihood.
In class we have belabored the environmental, ethical, and traditional quandaries that tag along with the overblown industrial food system that allows for these supermarkets so I won't preach that any further. However, I am stuck on one thought that was brought up in class: limiting choices at the supermarket will bring back traditional knowledge of our food landscape. In essence, bringing to the forefront the localvore movement. But how are we to limit grocery stores to items that only grow in that area? Now that might be at the most extreme levels, so let's ask, how do we limit grocery stores to items that can only be produced in the United States? I am no economist but that seems like the silver bullet to the grocery store industry. And on the other hand, it seems like a near impossible task to convert all United States citizens to promote limiting in a culture built on over consumption. It might be easy to convince a classroom full of young college students whose interest lie in organic food systems, but what about the rest of the country? Seems like a daunting task riddled and teeming with social, political, cultural, and ethical complications..
Now I am not against the local food movement. If anything I am 100 percent for it. But if I want to eat a mango or some other tropical fruit I bought at the market, why should I feel guilty about it? I suppose all the environmental costs that are hidden in the background are good enough reasons. But would foreign foods become more acceptable if the transportation and environmental concerns were addressed? What if we were to use aircrafts instead of 18-wheelers, or improve our railroad systems so they are high speed bullets, or better yet, research the repelling magnetic propulsed train that doesn't use any fossil fuels. It seems like the supermarket mentality and the wide variety of food isn't necessarily the problem...it's the hidden processes that take place behind the scenes to allow this privilege. Maybe promoting a widespread localvore movement is the key to all these locked doors... or maybe that's missing a larger overarching problem...who knows?
You raise an interesting point: suppose that we can eliminate all of the (hidden) costs associated with eating a mango, say. For example, we find a way to transport it from India to Vermont, one that has a negligible carbon footprint. Then is there any reason not to eat mangos in VT?
ReplyDeleteI believe that lurking behind Greta's question is a concern about how we deal with the Omnivore's Dilemma when we are overwhelmed by so many food choices. But, if we limit our choices by turning to a local diet we might find a way to create the kind of cultural memory that might inoculate us against the susceptibility to fad diets, obesity and more importantly, perhaps, the rootlessness that comes with living in a global or cosmopolitan world. There's a lot more to be said here. You're asking the right questions and posing important concerns.
Yep, that's exactly what I'm getting at. I'm still unsure about it myself - is there anything wrong about eating a mango in Vermont? Not necessarily, but we would still lack the cultural knowledge about food combinations - what to eat with the mango, how to cook it, how much to eat. And while the local food movement might not solve this issue, it may help. There will be less options and we will become familiar with the foods that grow in our regions AND we will eat the foods when they are in season - taking advantage of their maximum amount of nutrients by eating them fresh.
DeleteSomething else I thought of: is there also a health component to eating locally/culturally? Are our bodies genetically programmed to eat foods from the very same ecosystems in which we live? Perhaps this question is irrelevant in today's globalized world because most of us have been uprooted from our origins. But if we could establish a rootedness in a particular locale, would our bodies adapt to the plants that grow there?
I worked at a farm and retreat center this summer. We cooked and served the food that we grew. I reminded of the fact that one of the retreat participants said that she felt she could take away some of the spiritual energy of the place by consuming the food from the land.