Frequenting local farmers and local producers is great when you can do it…but they can pry my coffee beans from my cold, dead fingers.

Still, the movement has some good basic ideas that we can all benefit from as long as we don’t go overboard or become paranoid.

(stashes coffee beans and chocolate in case of food terrorist raids)

The problem with the “100-mile rule” is that it has very quickly become…a rule. And it’s crazy. Even if you live in California, wouldn’t you like to eat baked potatoes (need colder climates), bananas (need warmer climates), pineapples and mangoes (don’t grow in California, either). People have beeen violating the 100-mile rule since ancient times, when the Greeks exported olive oil, the Egyptians exported grain, the Mideast exported dried fruit, and all spices came by sea from India and its environs (they still do, for the most part). What if you lived in Nome, Alasaka–are you supposed to live on walrus blubber?

Why not just encourage people to patronize local farmers and farmers’ markets, on the argument that the produce just tastes better, instead of setting up a silly 100-mile rule that even the most self-righteous foodies violate (else no coffee or tea)?

My main points would be:

imposing any sort of radius in this case would have both positive and negative impacts. It would be good for farmers but bad for consumers because it limits competition which keeps prices low—as we know locally grown is often more expensive. Though not always, because I get Ranier Cherries at the farmers market for $4/lb rather than $6.5/lb at Safeway or Fred Meyer. Unfortunately, for farmers, competition isn’t good because their product is subject to nature—growing season, viability…etc.

“free” trade would be out the window if the government just decided you could only buy food within a given area. Also, why is it that people/government are always trying to impose these sorts of things on everyone anyway? You should have the choice to buy whatever you want wherever it is offered, and likewise, companies should be able to sell whatever they want wherever they can. Remember, even the produce sold at Safeway is grown on a farm…by farmers.

I live in one of the best areas of arable land in the world, and we have farmers producing all kinds fruits and vegetables, and all manner of meats and dairy and local specialty foods wherever you turn–yet, every summer, when the fields are laden with this produce and local farmers are trying as hard as possible to sell as much as they can so they can keep farming, our supermarkets are stuffed to the rafters with fruit, vegetables, and meats from anywhere else (usually California or South America)–often exactly the same produce that local farmers are producing literally across the street from their aisles. The “100 mile” rule is to get consumers to think about buying the fresh, ripe, well prepared foods from the people they live near (because shaming the supermarket conglomerates to sell local foods just hasn’t worked in Canada). Not only do you keep your local economy alive, the stuff just tastes so much better and is so much better for you. And you can find out exactly what your neighbour is doing when the food’s produced. Try doing that with some Monsanto-run agricorp in the US whose contracts for sales with the megalomart in your town has to honour well into the next millennium.

Then, buy the parmiggiano reggiano from Parma because even though it comes from half a world away, it’s still made a lot like it was 800 years ago. To make the local stuff taste great!