Comment

The Locavore's Dilemma

in Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet
Oct 28, 2013bobbarnetson rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
This book clearly demonstrates that contemporary agricultural practices (and globalized agricultural markets) are more efficient than locavorism. Where the book falls down is its failure to meaningfully engage with the peak oil (or peak energy or peak everything) thesis. The authors do touch on peak oil and, in two and a half pages they dismiss it, making the (probably incorrect) assumption (typical of neoclassical economics) that substitutes will arise. While analytically convenient, dismissing the rapid depletion of the key input to contemporary agriculture and global trade fundamentally undermines the value and validity of their book. This oversight is a bit ironic given that the authors’ charge that locavores “fail to take a broad enough look at the relevant issues to understand some inherent shortcomings of their prescription” (pp. 87-88). While the Locavore’s Dilemma is a useful corrective to weak arguments for changing agricultural practices, it obscures the more salient issue: globalized food production will be unsustainable within the next 30 years and public policy ought to encourage us to alter what we produce and consume (and how we produce and consume it). Locavorism offers one model; perhaps there are others? Ignoring this issue does readers (and society) a disservice.