I'm a big fan of eating local and prefer fresh food from my garden to food harvested last week being sold at the grocery. That being said, Newsweek and a few other publications have been publicizing a new book by James McWilliams, a Texas history professor (not an economist or agricultural expert), that points out that organic gardening does not always make sense and is not always energy efficient. For instance, we use gas to transport manure to our plots and there are simply not always effective organic solutions to viruses and blights, etc. He also points out that it takes more land (read: deforestation) to raise grass fed beef. (However, if you've seen King Corn and have done his research about feed yards, you'll become a vegetarian like Professor McWilliams).
Just food for thought. You can read some comments about McWilliams' new book,
Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly (Little, Brown), at Newsweek, Forbes, and The New York Times.
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Food for Thought: Are localvores really green?
I'm a big fan of eating local and prefer fresh food from my garden to food harvested last week being sold at the grocery. That being said, Newsweek and a few other publications have been publicizing a new book by James McWilliams, a Texas history professor (not an economist or agricultural expert), that points out that organic gardening does not always make sense and is not always energy efficient. For instance, we use gas to transport manure to our plots and there are simply not always effective organic solutions to viruses and blights, etc. He also points out that it takes more land (read: deforestation) to raise grass fed beef. (However, if you've seen King Corn and have done his research about feed yards, you'll become a vegetarian like Professor McWilliams).
Just food for thought. You can read some comments about McWilliams' new book,
Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly (Little, Brown), at Newsweek, Forbes, and The New York Times.
Just food for thought. You can read some comments about McWilliams' new book,
Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly (Little, Brown), at Newsweek, Forbes, and The New York Times.
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