The Locavore's Dilemma (33 page)

2
Frédéric Bastiat. 1862. « La peur d'un mot. » In
Oeuvres complètes, Tome Deuxième
, Guillemin, p. 397.

3
Thomas Hardy. 1891.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/110/110-h/110-h.htm
.

4
Ray Hughes Whitbeck. 1924.
Industrial Geography. Production, Manufacture, Commerce.
American Book Company, pp. 12–13.

5
Frédéric Bastiat. 1848. “What is Seen and What is Not Seen.” In
Selected Essays on Political Economy
(nonpaginated)
http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss1.html#Chapter%201,%20What%20Is%20Seen%20and%20What%20Is%20Not%20Seen
.

6
Thomas Robert Malthus. 1800.
An Investigation of the Cause of the Present High Price of Provisions
. Davis, Taylor, and Wilks. Nonpaginated version available at
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/malthus/highpric.txt
.

7
Jill Richardson. 2010. “Locavore Lessons for Curmudgeons.”
Grist
(August 22)
http://www.grist.org/article/food-fight-do-locavores-really-need-math-lessons/P4
.

8
To give of sense of how much still needs to be accomplished though, according to a USDA report, direct sale to consumers, like farmers markets, only accounted for 0.4 percent of total agricultural sales in 2007 (excluding nonedible products only brought the total up to 0.8 percent). See Steve Martinez, Michael Hand, Michelle Da Pra, Susan Pollack, Katherine Ralston, Travis Smith, Stephen Vogel, Shellye Clark, Luanne Lohr, Sarah Low and Constance Newman. 2010.
Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, and Issues
. Economic Research Report #97. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR97/ERR97.pdf
.

9
The issue is obviously trickier for processed products depending on the various rules of origins regulating them. For instance, “Canadian” pickled products are often grown in other countries, but if enough processing activities take place in Canada, they can earn a national designation.

10
Joseph Russell Smith. 1917. “Price Control through Industrial Organization.”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
74 (The World's Food): 280–287, p. 285.

11
Joseph Russell Smith. 1917. “Price Control through Industrial Organization.”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
74 (The World's Food): 280–287, p. 285.

12
USDA grading services
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/Grading
and food standards
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/standards
can be found on the agency's website.

13
John M. McKee. 1925. “The Relation of Local Farm Output to the Local Product.”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
117: 278–284, p. 282.

14
Idem, p. 284.

15
For a recent discussion of the issue, see Bee Wilson. 2008.
Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, from Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee
. Princeton University Press. For a more ancient and concise source, see « Adulteration. » 1911.
Encyclopedia Britannica
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Adulteration
. For a concise history of food adulteration in the United States, along with regulatory attempts to address the problem, see Marc T. Law. 2010. “History of Food and Drug Regulation in the United States.” In Robert Whaples (ed.)
EH.Net Encyclopedia
http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Law.Food.and.Drug.Regulation
.

16
Friedrich Christian A. Accum. 1820.
A Treatise on Adulterations of Foods, and Culinary Poisons
, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
http://books.google.ca/books?id=YWAUAAAAQAAJ&hl=fr&source=gbs_navlinks_s
.

17
Quoted in Bertie Mandelblatt. 2007. “A Transatlantic Commodity: Irish Salt Beef in the French Atlantic World.”
History Workshop Journal
63 (1): 18–47, p. 29.

18
Adulteration. 1911.
Encyclopedia Britannica
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Adulteration
.

19
See, among others, Lauren Etter. 2010. “Food for Thought: Do you Need Farmers for a Farmers Market?”
Wall Street Journal
(April 29)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703404004575198270918567074.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
.

20
Colleen Vanderlinden. 2010. “Scammers at the Farmers'Market: How to Make Sure You're Supporting Local Farmers. Be educated, be vigilant, know what's in Season!”
PlanetGreen.com
(September 29)
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/scammers-at-the-farmers-market—-and-how-to-make-sure -youre-supporting-local-farmers.html
.

21
Linda Crago. “Growing Food in Niagara—How Things Change in 14 Years. Part 3: Local and Organic.”
Tree and Twig Farm Blog
(April 17)
http://tree-andtwigheirlooms.blogspot.com/2011/04/growing-food-in-niagara-how-things_17.html
; See also Mischa Popoff. 2011. “Beware of Organic Crusaders.”
The National Post
, March 11
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/04/11/mischa-popoff-beware-of-organic-crusaders/
.

22
US House of Representatives. 2009. “Statement of Joel Salatin (April 17, 2008).”
After the Beef Recall: Exploring Greater Transparency in the Meat Industry.
Hearing before the Subcommittee on Domestic Policy of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-110hhrg51700/html/CHRG-110hhrg51700.htm
.

23
Russ Parsons. 2008. “Food Fight Grows over the Cream of the Crop.”
Los Angeles Times
(March 9)
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/09/local/me-market9
.

24
Some farm-to-institution programs (such as farm-to-school
http://www.farmtoschool.org/
) also operate on the same model and can be subjected to the same kind of criticism we raise for CSA initiatives.

25
Patti Ghezzi. 2009. “The Tasty Advantages of Community Supported Agriculture.”
Divine Caroline
http://www.divinecaroline.com/22145/70730-tasty-advantages-community-supported-agriculture
.

26
Lynda Altman. 2001. “Pros and Cons of Community Supported Agriculture. CSAs are not for everyone” Associate Content from
Yahoo.com
(February 15)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7734092/pros_and_cons_of_consumer_supported.html?cat=6
.

27
Adapted from the Tucson Community Supported Agriculture initiative website
http://www.tucsoncsa.org/about/why-you-should-join/
.

28
Gary Blumenthal. 2011. “Creating False Markets.”
World Perspectives, Inc.
(February), p. 1.

29
One estimate of the number of different physical products marked by a barcode in the greater New York City area is 10 billion. True, many of these are supplied by small businesses that cater to narrower niches, but the diversity and affordability of products offered by large supermarket chains and “Big Box” retail stores has become truly astounding, even by recent historical standards.

30
For a more detailed examination of this claim that isn't limited to food offerings, see Tyler Cowen. 2002.
Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures
. Princeton University Press.

31
For a more detailed discussion of the issue, see Susan Fleiss Lowenstein. 1965. “Urban Images of Roman Authors.”
Comparative Studies in Society and History
8 (1): 110–123.

32
Virgil. 37 BCE.
The Eclogues
http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/eclogue.html
.

33
Horace. Approx. 35 BCE.
Satires
, Book 2, Satire VI: The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse.
http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/HoraceSatiresBkIISatVI.htm#_Toc98155109
and Horace. 14 BCE
Epistles
, Book 2, Part 2: An Answer to Florus' Complaints
http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/HoraceEpistlesBkIIEpII.htm
.

34
For a more detailed treatment of the romantic and aristocratic roots of environmentalism in the English-speaking world, see Donald Gibson. 2002.
Environmentalism: Ideology and Power
. Nova Publishers.

35
Rob Harris. 2007. “Let's Ditch this ‘Nostalgia for Mud,'
Spiked
(December 4)
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4144
.

36
Genesis 3: 17–19.

37
Henry David Thoreau. 1854.
Walden, or Life in the Woods
http://books.google.ca/books?id=pbElaJ5zROUC&dq=thoreau+walden&source=gbs_navlinks_s
.

38
Karl Kautsky. 1899 (1988).
The Agrarian Question in Two Volumes
. Zwan Publications, p. 218. Kautsky further observed that the individuals most likely to leave the countryside were “propertyless labourers, and of these the unmarried” and that it was “not simply the physically strongest, but also the most energetic and intelligent” that migrated (p. 224).

39
Mario Polèse. 2009.
The Wealth and Poverty of Regions. Why Cities Matter.
University of Chicago Press, p. 139. See also Edward Glaeser. 2011.
Triumph of the City. How our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier.
Penguin Press, p. 7.

40
Mario Polèse. 2009.
The Wealth and Poverty of Regions. Why City Matters.
University of Chicago Press, p. 140.

41
Edward Glaeser. 2011.
Triumph of the City. How our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier.
Penguin Press, p. 70.

42
Ben Worthen. 2010. “A Dozen Eggs for $8? Michael Pollan Explains the Math of Buying Local.”
Wall Street Journal
(August 5)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704271804575405521469248574.html
For another acknowledgement of this fact by an organic food supporter, see Jeffrey Kluger. 2010. “What's so Great about Organic Food?”
Time
(August 25)
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2011756_2011730_2011720,00.html
.

43
Gary Blumenthal. 2008. “Hand Building Automobiles (Food).”
World Perspectives, Inc.
(May), p. 2.

44
USDA website.
Food CPI, Prices and Expenditures: Expenditures on Food, by Selected Countries
(various tables)
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/CPIFoodAndExpenditures/
.

1
Quoted in Kaori O'Connor. 2009. “The King's Christmas Pudding: Globalization, Recipes and the Commodities of Empire.”
Journal of Global History
4 (1): 127–155, p. 143. The [British] Empire Marketing Board's (1926–1933) mission was to encourage “local” Empire shopping campaigns. A collection of posters produced by this organization is available on the website of the Manchester Art Gallery at
http://www.manchestergalleries.org/the-collections/revealing-histories/propaganda-pride-and-prejudice-posters-from-the-empire-marketing-board/
.

2
Interview with Michael Pollan. 2008.
Bill Moyers Journal
. (November 28)
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11282008/transcript1.html
.

3
Michael Pollan. 2008. “Farmer in Chief.”
New York Times Magazine
(October 9)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html
.

4
Leah Bloom. 2010. “Comment on Steven Landsburg's ‘Loco-Vores'.”
The Big Questions
(August 23)
http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/08/23/loco-vores/
.

5
Frédéric Bastiat. 1848. “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen.” In
Selected Essays on Political Economy
(nonpaginated)
http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss1.html#Chapter%201,%20What%20Is%20Seen%20and%20What%20Is%20Not%20Seen
.

6
Center for Consumer Freedom. 2009. “Come On Down to the Farmers Market (Bring Your Wallet and Your Food Orthodoxy), (September 17)
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/h/3992-come-on-down-to-the-farmers-market-bring-your-wallet-and-your-food-orthodoxy
.

7
Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. 2005. “Living on the 100-mile Diet,”
The Tyee
(June 28)
http://thetyee.ca/Life/2005/06/28/HundredMileDiet
and Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. 2007.
The 100-Mile Diet
.
A Year of Local Eating.
Random House Canada.

8
Adam Smith. 1776.
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,
Vol. 1, Book IV, chapter II: Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of Such Goods as Can Be Produced at Home
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=237&chapter=212328&layout=html&Itemid=27
.

9
See, among others, Tom Philpott. 2011. “Freakonomics Blog: Still Wrong on Local Food.”
MotherJones.com
(November 18)
http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/11/freakonomics-blog-still-wrong-local-food
.

10
See Peter Garnsey. 1988.
Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World: Responses to Risk and Crisis
. Cambridge University Press, pp. 54–55.

11
Michael Pollan. 2008. “Farmer in Chief.”
New York Times Magazine
(October 9)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html
.