Why Feeding a Family for $4/Week Isn't a Good Thing II

I wrote the post last week in a fit of passion about a topic that matters a lot to me. I was appalled that a major news channel would tout eating 42352 ingredient pizza as a step along the path to heroism and an adequate way to feed a family, but of course, there are two sides to every coin. The local/sustainable food movement is no exception.

My good friend Sarah, who always does a great job directly or indirectly of keeping me grounded, posted this article, which is definitely worth the read if my previous post incited feelings of rage in anyone else. It serves to point out that there are many, many more things we need to consider when we're making what we think are sustainable and ecologically sound purchase decisions. I've listed my major take-away's here:

1. Transportation - Although buying local does support the local economy and local businesses, the food might've been transported to the market in hundreds of different non-fuel-efficient trucks. (But transportation only accounts for 1/10 of food production's greenhouse gas emissions, and I'd still rather support a local business that treats its employees ethically than from a giant national corporation with questionable morals.)
   
2. Resource Intensity - Certain foods suck up so many resources regardless of where they're produced that you can shrink your footprint far more by changing what you eat, rather than where the food came from. Going meat- and dairyless one day a week is more environmentally beneficial than eating locally every single day.
3. Definition of Sustainability - Rather than focusing on 10 things we can do that'll make us sustainable eaters, we need to look at the entire system and it's ability to sustain itself within the confines of limited and finite resources. Is a farm that uses manure as organic fertilizer from a feedlot hundreds of miles away sustainable, despite being able to label their produce as organic?
   
4. Scale - It would be great if we could feed a population of 6.7 billion people from local polyculture-type farms, but it would require a serious paradigm shift. Is population growth really the culprit, preventing us from turning the current food system around?
5. Does the sustainable movement need to bend? To get large scale industrial farms on board, we might need to adjust what our ultimate goals are. Incentives for farmers and consumers need to change, and everyone needs to participate somehow.

So, take this for what it's worth, but give the article a good read. It doesn't provide be-all end-all solutions, but definitely puts a different spin on things.