Carbon Schmarbon

I've just finished reading an inane article on Salon.com by Roberta Kwok; it's typical of the phoned-in, shoddily-researched mumbo-jumbo that passes for left-leaning journalism (having taken its cue, perhaps, from the phoned-in, shoddily-researched mumbo-jumbo purveyed by the right wing as well). The article, "Locally Grown Food Is More Ecological? Not So Fast," points out that farmers markets and the like might not be as carbon-friendly as we think. Heck, in terms of fuel consumption, they might actually consume as much gasoline as supermarkets-- maybe even more!

Here's the logic: supermarket produce may travel further than local produce, but farmers truck the stuff in with much less mega-efficiency than the supermarkets. After all, how many farmers own 18-wheelers? And thus, Kwok comes dangerously close to launching a clarion call to Salon's self-hating pseudo-liberals: buy cosmopolitan! Maybe we're all not such bad people for wanting to enjoy our persimmons and off-season tomatoes at Whole Foods.

I recently heard Bruce Robbins, an English professor at Columbia, make a similarly narrow-minded point. His pseudo-environmentalist appeal to gastronomic cosmopolitanism had, however, a little bit of ideological bait thrown in as well. The "Buy Local" mandate, like the "Buy American" mantra, comes suspiciously close to replicating a form of cultural xenophobia; however good our intentions might be, "buying local" smacks of potential deception. We might think we're doing the right thing, but we're really acting like suckers.

Kwok, to his credit, isn't suggesting that we give up on farmers markets-- he concludes only that he should "leave his calculator at home" next time, in order to avoid getting himself all dizzy over the problem of carbon calculation in the first place.

I'm stunned, though, by the article's lack of consideration for the longer-term economic-- and thus environmental-- differences between the globalization of produce and the support for local farming. For every time a small farm goes under, yielding its land either to sub-developments or to industrial mega-farms, the effects are far more wide-ranging than simply the matter of how much gas it takes to drive to the market, or of how much greenhouse gas an actual greenhouse produces.

Farmers markets benefit farmers-- at least I hope they do-- as do programs that enable markets, restaurants, schools, businesses, and individuals to buy local produce. I'm sure, yes, that there's plenty of driving involved. But every time a farm turns into a "Fox Run Village" or a "Wayside Crest" piled high with eco-friendly McHouses, there's a new bumper crop of cars, traffic, and the inevitable highway-widening and mega-marts that follow.

And yes, the 18-wheelers that heave in the bushels of imported (and sometimes delicious) produce from California or Guatamala to the local Wegman's may be more efficient than Farmer Dan's old Chevy pickup. But I'll bet you dollars to donuts that there will be more 18-wheelers once those farms have gone.