In an article in the March/April issue of Mother Jones, author Paul Roberts takes a provocative view of U.S. foodies pushing for local and organic food. Roberts challenges the notion that "organic and local" can ever actually scale up to meet the food needs of billions of people.
Roberts writes, "If we want to build large-scale capacity, we're going to need to broaden our definitions of sustainable practices. . .the local-food movement, too must learn to bend. The reality of 21st century America is that food demand is centered in cities, while most arable land is in rural areas."
"We can't wait for the perfect solution to emerge," writes Roberts. "We need to start transforming the food system today--probably with hybrid models. . .that take the best of both alternative and mainstream technologies and acknowledge not only the complexity of true sustainability, but the practical reality that the perfect is often the enemy of the good."
The article touched a nerve and got a huge response. Now, Mother Jones is hosting an online forum to discuss the issues outlined in Roberts' article. IATP President Jim Harkness, Lisa Gosselin, Ryan Zinn and Paul Roberts will be debating and answering readers' questions all week on the future of food. Roberts' article is worth reading and responding to.
