Shipping Food

I found another article on the energy cost of shipping food, worth a read: link -> NYTimes. It's an interesting read, and a good snapshot of the business perspective, but it also highlights the thinking paradigm that's probably the problem to begin with. Rather then simply eating local food year round, the article (and, presumably, the businesses involved) are looking for more environmentally sensitive ways to transport exotic foods. The motivation might be good, but the obvious solution is entirely ignored. Shipping apples from New Zealand to Europe might have less of an environmental impact than storing them for months in refrigerated containers locally- or you could just not eat apples out of season, and avoid the entire problem. Shipping kiwis from Italy to New Zealand (the studies seemed to focus on Europe and New Zealand, but the results are the same for the US) in NZ's winter might be better than growing them in fancy greenhouses- or you just not eat kiwis out of season. The implicit assumption is that people WILL eat the same foods year round, there's no possible way the consumer will change their eating habits, and any sane person couldn't possibly resist a fresh strawberry in January, regardless of where it's from. I think people (potentially) deserve a little more credit.

It's difficult to eat only food locally, in season, and we're certainly not doing the best job ourselves (had some ahi last night, actually, and it was wonderful), but we're trying... thank God the farmers market is now open and we can get some lettuce and other green things. But it's still slim pickings... I'm off to the market to get potatoes... again... and some flour to make some bread this afternoon. I'm getting sick of brown food. But, it's almost summer, so good times are a-coming.

By the way... anybody coming to Russia with me?