Climate Change, Environment and Ecology discussion

Here is a question I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about (and writing on – I’m happy to provide details of my articles and books if people are interested):

Can local food systems avert future food crises?

On the “pro-side” I see that local food systems should be biologically diverse (ie local markets will demand a range of products that farmers will produce), involve less food miles (which hopefully reduces the carbon food print and our reliance on fossil fuels), and result in less soil degradation and water pollution (because nutrients will be able to be recycled because food production and consumption will be much closer together).

However, if a group of consumers depend on the local region, what happens if the local region suffers a bad drought? In this case, a global system may help reduce the risk that local production shocks will result in people going to bed hungry. Also, some areas are better suited to producing grain, while others better suited to dairy (etc.). It only makes sense to allow such regions to specialize and trade and if we had to be self sufficient in everything then food would be much much more expensive. Not only would this impose economic costs but environmental ones too as lots of the remaining forests and wetlands around our cities would be put under pressure to be converted to grain fields.

Obviously a balance of local and global is required (say a “glocal” system) but how this would play out would be extremely complicated.

I’d love to debate these issues if anyone was interested.

Evan

This is a subject that interests myself also. You have brought up many of the issues about this subject but my first two questions are about availability. First question is the obvious one--How are fruits and veggies to be obtained on a year-round basis ?
The second question is access. For a family/individual buyer you have farmers markets, food co-ops, etc. but for a restaurant the issue is larger. How would you, efficiently and effectively, get the product to the restaurant in a timely way, in the right quantities, with the proper "ripeness" ?

Some of you many be interested that my co-writer, Andrew Rimas, has just started a blog at Psychology Today called "The Considered Table" where he is exploring issues related to food, sustainability, culture and history. This material is drawn from our upcoming book called

Empires of Food: Why Civilization Revolves Around the Dinner Table as well as our first book Beef: The Untold Story of How Milk, Meat, and Muscle Shaped the World

Andrew's blog can be found at:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/t...

In the following two pod casts, Andrew Rimas and I discuss the history of food and its role in shaping society.

http://www.thetakeaway.org/2010/jul/0...
http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/201...

I wrote a fictional thriller on some of these issues. Mostly, I relate it to the water crisis, but the water crisis will lead to a food crisis, an energy crisis, a medication crisis, and so on.

Inevitable

Like I said, its fiction. But one of the goals was to raise awareness.