Local, Schmocal
My younger sister Adelin posts about the flip side of going loco for local:
Should I feel guilty that my ecological footprint would make Big Foot blush because while I try to be local in upstate New York, ultimately, I am not and I hop on a plane in order to see the people I love? Isn’t there an inherent anti-diversity slant to the movement for localization when advocating for solely local and seasonal produce? Should I feel unwelcome when people tell me I should eat this or eat that locally when physiologically I am predisposed to consuming a rice-based rather than a wheat-based diet, culturally I eat wontons, not pierogies, and so if I choose to eat locally, I am depriving my body of certain foods that sustain the self and the soul? Is the movement for localization an argument for the same kind of homogenization that globalization is creating, represented in those Golden Arches of unattainable diversity, except that this homogenization will appear in pocketed communities?
As much as I love to be local, my world is tactile, is breathing, is moving, is dynamic, is full of sensations and I cannot learn about how beautiful and how wonderful it is through a screen, a book, a film, or any other secondary filter because learning for me is about experience. Should I feel guilty about my wanderlust, my desire to touch the earth wherever it is from one end of the universe to the other because when I do so, I’m expanding my ecological footprint and jeopardizing Mother Earth? I know the cliche, the overabused answer is balance, balance and balance.
november said,
April 26, 2006 at 9:57 pm
was reading your comment on ur sis’ blog
is there free trade rice? :P
living in asia just makes me feel miserable about lack of information and availability about free trade stuff… considering i live in a country that imports >90% of its food. argh.
Adelin said,
April 26, 2006 at 10:12 pm
november:
I think perhaps trying to buy as local as you can in your case (as is in mine — I’m from Singapore and we have almost zilch local ag.). Perhaps Malaysian produce? Thai rice? Sure, the food is travelling from outside the country but if you think about how small a country like Singapore is, buying from Malaysia proportionately might be the equivalent of someone from Manhattan buying beans from Ithaca and still staying within the state of New York. I’m not sure if that really makes sense, at this point… Have to think that one through first. Setting the boundaries of local has been a bit of dilemma for me.
How big is the fair trade movement where you are?