Krusty wrote:
chris wrote:
Lastly I may choose to buy food locally because I know that the biggest source of GHG emissions in the food industry is due to transport.
Actually it turns out that this is true for the exceptional case only like the one you mention of the consumer driving a long way for only a little food. It's a common misconception, I think partly because local marketers and advertisers over-sell it as part of their sales pitch.
Google finds lots of authoritative references. This one says "...transportation accounts for about 14% of the total energy used by the U.S. food system, about 5% from personal grocery shopping trips and only about 9% from distributing raw and processed food."
https://www.oregon.gov/deq/FilterDocs/P ... ummary.pdfQuote:
I buy locally sometimes because I want to support my community, knowing that they will (I hope) support me when the time comes. I also know that having thriving local businesses helps support infrastructure that is useful to me.
So you are effectively imposing a tariff on non-local goods and like all tariffs it's you, the consumer, that pays more. Extrapolate to the national level, thrown in some cherry-picked examples, mix with a generous portion of hyperbole and BAM, we've got ourselves a trade war!
OK I will give you that one but at least quote a Canadian reference for your assertions on GHGs! It is likely that food miles in Canada are (potentially) way higher than in the USA, particularly in winter, and most of it is going by road instead of by sea , the method often quoted in many of the calculations. Long distance transportation could also potentially result in more spoilage before it reaches the consumer.
Trade war, no, personal preference and cost benefit analysis. Choices are made on a case by case basis, not in an arbitrary way as would be done by tariffs. Not expressing any preference as to the original source of the materials or goods as I realise that a small town can't support much in the way of complex industrial manufacturing. I have always thought of war as something engaged in by the state