Localism: Crap.

I mentioned last week how shocking it was to go into a farmer's market and find it all be (local) conventional produce.

Yeah... I've been thinking about that over the past few days. A lot.

Living the last 6 years on Vancouver Island, I was well sheltered in a bubble of food consciousness. The politics of our food choices was a lifestyle on the island and I relished it. Along with an active lifestyle, no smokers and the ability to walk anywhere I needed to be in 20 minutes.

The people and businesses I engaged with cared about what they put into their bodies, their loved ones and the planet. A holistic vision of eating was almost a given - you barely had to blink an eye and everything was local, in season, organic, and the meat and eggs were pastured and even Halal. 

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Worst case scenario: I couldn't find what I wanted or how I wanted it, I'd just grow/raise it myself.

Moving to Toronto has been a bit of a shock that way. And while that kind of eating is certainly present, it's going to to take some serious digging to find the right places to patronize.  I have no yard = no 100ft diet tomatoes. And that's okay. I'm willing to take a break from Sex and the City and Walking Dead reruns to google ethical food sources. It's really not a big deal.

What is a big deal? .... the ass-umption that local = ethical and good. Localism: Crap. The idea that local = right often obscures the realities of local food production. Yes, it's great that localism cuts down on the travel expenses of conventional food including transportation fuel, refrigeration costs and all the scary labor abuses that occur in various parts of the world - most of which are indeed necessary to produce products for consumption on such a mass scale. And localism also involves eating in season - locally. Again, cutting back on the above mentioned traumas to the planet. And that's a good thing.

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But at the same time... Blind localism - the method of eating locally which dictates that living local = living ethically - is injurious to the Earth and each other. Much local food is still grown with chemical inputs such as pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and hormones and anti-biotics. Think about your own self for a second. If something gets on your skin - lotion, lip gloss, perfume, etc... - some of it washes away. But your body certainly absorbs a good deal of it. The same happens to the food you plan on consuming. What goes on, must go in. Uhhh... haha.

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And this speaks nothing of the animal abuses that occur in large scale agriculture...

...Or the people who have to harvest your food. If you take a very close look at large-scale agriculture within our national boundaries, you will uncover unthinkable labor abuses that take place in our own back yard. There are both legal and illegal migrant workers who are trucked into these farms and forced to live in sheds and group houses without proper electricity or running water and are coated in mass scale agri-chemicals. They work 12- 18 hour days without respite in the hot sun, cold winters, and their skin burns with pesticides causing skin damage, loss of eye sight and spontaneous abortion in pregnant women and birth defects in born children. Families are torn apart against their will. Dehydration and starvation are common. But mum's the word because their ability to stay in Canada or the U.S. depends on their having work. And because of systematic injustices that would be a whole other conversation, they have no choice but to stay where they are and survive and suffer.

I know it sounds complicated. But it doesn't have to be complicated. Eating locally is a step. And if you've taken it - good on you. But like it or not, those workers belong to someone. Imagine your sister or brother or mom or dad or best friend subjected to such conditions. And this planet is our home. It's as good to us as it can be given what we do to it - don't we feel at least a little responsibility to take care of it? At least a little responsibility to each other? 

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I know I'm likely preaching to the choir right now. A lot of you who read my blog are already on the happy food train. And I realize that we're all on different stages of our food journeys. We do what we can, when we can, how we can, where we can. But it's easy to get complacent. It's comfortable to stay where we are. My question for you is: How can you take the next step? What's the next thing you can do to make safe food choices? What more can you do? 

Next time you're at the farmer's market, think. Think. Think. Think. And ask. You've already gone to the effort to get to the market, you might as well say hello to a few people. Most farmers are pleased as punch to talk about what they do - it's their life's work and passion, after all. If they are raising their food the right way, they'll be quick to answer your questions. Things you can ask:

• Is your produce sprayed? (i.e. with artificial chemicals? pesticides?)
• Is your produce/honey/baked goods/etc. organic in practice? (Not necessarily in certification because the cert. process is just that: a process. Very expensive, very time-consuming and unfair to smaller producers).
• Do you grow the food yourself?
• Where is your farm? Is it near the city?
• What do you feed your cows - chickens - pigs - etc...?
• Is the feed organic? 
• Are your animals or eggs pastured?
• How are your chickens raised? (FYI - free range and free run don't necessarily mean that animals have free movement. Click here or here for more info on this topic).
• Who raises/harvests your food?
• How are your workers treated or compensated for their work?
• Do you have a volunteer program where I can come to the farm for a few hours and see how things work myself?

I guess the lesson I learned last weekend (& my point) is this: Don't assume that local means your food is ethical. Don't assume that a farmer's market means your food is happy. Don't be an ass. Instead, ask.

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What do you think?

 This post is linked up with What's in the Box?; Whole Foods Wednesday; Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; Fight Back Friday; Simple Living with Diane Balch; Fresh Bites Friday.