This past September I visited a friend of mine in Rome for her birthday. At the party she was given a book that I had long wanted to read, Freakonomics. In this book, two economists look at many instances of what is conventional called common wisdom and show that, oftentimes, it should be more accurately called common stupidity. I was the first to open the book at the party, even before the new owner had a chance. I read the first chapter, then went back to France and forgot about the book again.
Today I remembered again when I found an article in the Economist that attempts to debunk what it calls myths surrounding organically farmed, fairly traded or locally grown food. Given that the Economist is, despite honest attempts at fairness and objectivity, the official publication of big money capitalism, the conclusions must be taken with a grain of salt. But like all unorthodox opinions, they are worth being considered and debated. Here are my two cents:
- Maybe apples shipped from New Zealand to Old England are environmentally and energetically more sensible than the home-grown varieties, but surely apples from closer orchards (eg. South Tyrolean) are even better.
- Kenyan green beans are flown in overnight, but maybe they should better be sold where they were grown, in a country that's suffering from famine, instead of being exported to a highly protective market.
- A much larger percentage of people walks to the local market (that's the point of it being local) than walk to the grocery store. That should give the market an uncontested edge in the food-vehicle mile game.
Will anyone share his or her thoughts on this topic?
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