Locanomonics

The NY Times Freakonomics Blog has been posting findings from Texas State University historian and author of the book, Just Food, James McWilliams. In 3 posts, Mr. McWilliams is looking behind the feel-good patina of localism to see if the math backs up the emotion.

His work is interesting, in a mathy, wonky-policy Type of way. If you don’t have the time or interest in reading the trilogy of posts, McWilliams' findings boil down to this paragraph.

…Sustainably produced local food is not accessible by all. In general, only the elite few with the time and material resources to capitalize on such environmental munificence have the time and money to benefit from transparently sustainable farms. As a result, the preconditions are inadvertently established for something that generally tends not to bind diverse communities into a cozy whole, but to fragment them: exclusivity.

McWilliams argues that the current locavore movement exists for the few, the proud - the citizen shoppers with disposable incomes.

Fair enough and so what.

A group of middle-class citizens got together to use public space, create events and to inspire, sustain and revive the craft of the small farm. If the closest these people have ever been to manure is reading an essay about it in a Wendell Berry book, how is this bad? What is wrong with supporting choices that are important to you as a consumer? Isn’t that what rational markets are all about?

If the sole purpose of promoting local food has been so Farmers Market supporters can get pesticide free berries, organic tomato juice for Bloody Mary’s and free range bacon for a weekly brunch where people talk about their children’s Montessori activities and how awesome Obama is - the locavore movement should be consider wildly successful. People went out and created a marketplace that reflects their values. The fact that Farmers Markets and local foods don’t solve everyone’s food security problems isn’t the fault or the problem of the local foods ‘movement’.

This is like an economist complaining despite all the local and municipal resources that go into building a church – easements, roads, sewer, traffic management, tax abatements, that outside of a couple of AA meetings, the only community the church really serves are people in that particular denomination.

Access to local foods isn’t going to solve every problem in the current food supply system. But a strong, local, food economy where growers, farmers and ranchers are supported might be very good today. And in 10 years: When the cost of fuel and agricultural inputs are so high the cost of transporting the fruits of monoculture 1,000 of miles is prohibitive or impossible, all local residents might very well be grateful a group of concerned citizens promoted and supported small scale, local agriculture and worked to develop a market for those goods long before it was a necessity.

Just sayin.