Mountain Xpress columnist questions “local food”
REGIONAL-As Asheville writer Stewart David wraps up his column in the most recent Mountain Xpress, he argues this:
There are definitely good reasons to support local farms. It’s great to do business with our neighbors, keep more money and jobs in our community, minimize “food miles,” eat fresher and tastier food, preserve local farmland and avoid supporting corporate agribusiness. And local farms are generally far less cruel than their industrial counterparts when it comes to raising animals.
But let’s not serve up their products with a side of greenwash. Plant-based agriculture is clearly much healthier for the earth, and thinking locally is only part of the equation: We also need to act globally. Nostalgic calls for a return to the perceived quaintness of days gone by are unrealistic, given the population explosion we’ve experienced.
David was responding, in part, to the notion that locally-raised meat is “green”. He argues, generally, that no meat is particularly green, and that that includes locally raised and consumed meats.
Another excerpt:
Compared with factory farms, family farms do employ some environmentally beneficial practices. Yet in some ways they’re actually less eco-friendly.
Animals allowed to move around expend more calories and thus consume more resources than those crammed into tiny crates and cages. Chickens not pumped full of antibiotics and genetically manipulated to reach optimal slaughter weight at 6-1/2 weeks take longer to raise — and consume more food in the process. Cows raised on pasture produce more methane (a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide) than those crammed into feedlots.
The column sparked a lively argument online, worth reading. Here’s the link again.
Tags: corporate agribusiness, Food, Mountain Xpress
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