Locavores, mocovores and other island eaters

We have several native and migratory varieties of vegetarians in Hawaii, and a large number of large people who can be called mocovores for their loco moco consumption (I resemble that remark) and then there is that new group, locavores, people who prefer to eat food that has been produced locally. I've been doing some reading on this phenomenon, which is not confined to the islands, and have discovered something on the mainland that seems at first to be a backlash, but on closer examination may simply be an effort to make more intelligent choices about where food comes from. The term locavores use is "food miles," when they argue that any food that is transported for a long distance is bad for the environment because of the fuel burned to haul it. You may think of California produce as an import from a distant land, but mainland America gets much of its greens from Latin America. I confess to you that this angle never occurred to me because food from the West Coast hitches a ride on ships that come here anyway. I like local produce because of - is this a term? - food days, the time it takes for the vegetation to get from the ground to the gut. It tastes better and it must have more nutrients. Eating local, for those who can afford the premium prices, also supports the local economy, since local farmers buy the same goods and services the rest of us do. An economy thrives when the same dollar is spent over and over rather than flying away to some other clime. Good for the government, too, since the essence of a general excise tax is to tax that dollar every time it moves. There is a new book that undermines some of the conventional thinking of locavores - "Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly," by James E. McWilliams, a history professor at the San Marcos campus of Texas State University. He argues that some locavores, organic food supporters and other responsible eaters are kidding themselves by making incremental improvements to their diet and the environment while buying commercial-grade ovens for their kitchens that waste energy, and then wasting 14% of total food purchases. Some small households are finally figuring out that there can be a false economy in shopping at Wal-Mart or Costco if you buy big food and let much of it go bad before you can consume it. Couples that buy small portions in expensive supermarkets may eat less and be healthier, which, given the soaring cost of medicine, may be another book, but let that pass, and in any case the most unhealthy food we eat is the drive-through food we buy because we're working longer hours, so that the nation's productivity is improving at the cost of our health, which may be another book... where was I? One more thing from the McWilliams book. He says organic farmers sometimes use "natural" chemicals that are really bad for you, like nicotine sulfate. There is a movement in the Midwest to go back to crop rotation to control pests - the pests that like corn don't multiply as much because the next year you don't grow corn on that land - so farmers don't have to apply ever increasing amounts of pesticides and herbicides. But I heard about this movement a dozen years ago and I don't see it exactly catching on. Vegetarians will tell you, accurately, that there are more health risks in eating commercially-produced meat and chicken than in eating greens, no matter what has been sprayed on them - though to give vegetarians a scare I'll just mention that Alar, the toxic chemical banned from apples in America a generation ago, never went off the market in South America, where we get so much of our "healthy" food these days. Don't give up, just try to keep up!

Comments

[Cathy]

I grew up here hating tomatoes...and then I discovered what I'd been missing years ago in Greece, of all places, where vine ripe and straight from the farmer to the neighborhood farmer's market was the norm. Came home and sadly found nothing comparable.

Thank goodness that times have changed. I thank the local growers almost every night as I eat yet another luscious tomato salad with just a little Hawaiian salt, cracked pepper, oregano, and olive oil - the best!