Place-Based Responses to the Global Food Economy

Abstract

The global food economy is one based on the creation of shelf-stable foodstuffs, transportation, and mass production. This industrialized system gives consumers the illusion of freedom from the caprices of nature and seasonality and allows fewer people to be engaged in the business of food production. Ostensibly, it allows more people to eat, based on the labor of a few, but the global food economy is not without its drawbacks. In recent years, it has become clear that food produced in such high quantities tends to lack nutritional value and is responsible for the growing health crisis marked by rising rates of obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Moreover, food produced in this manner takes an environmental toll. It is estimated that 25 percent of food produced each year is wasted and ends up in landfills. Concentrated agricultural feeding operations (CAFOs) are associated with high energy expenditures, water and air pollution, and improper care of animals (Imhoff, 2010). At the same time, food that is produced en masse is vulnerable to contamination, which is evidenced by a recent upsurge in recalls of meat, vegetable, and nut products contaminated with salmonella and E. coli. The purpose of this chapter, however, is not to critique the global food economy but, rather, to analyze one aspect of the response to “big food.” This response is centered on local food and, as a place-based movement, is in direct opposition to the placeless-ness of the industrialized system.