The Economic Pamphleteer: Local Food: Another Food Fad or Food of the Future?

Abstract

First paragraph: When anticipating the future, many experts simply examine trends of the past and project them into the future—as if trends continue indefinitely. However, one of the most fundamental principles of science is that everything on earth tends to cycle—whether physically, ecologically, economically, or socially (Culotta, 1991; Pool, 1991). All trends eventually stall out and reverse direction. Some apparent aberrations or blips in trends turn out to be harbingers of impending reversals. Some see the reemergence of farmers markets and popularity of locally grown foods as a passing fad or a blip in a continuing trend toward the globalization of the food system. Others see the local food movement as a harbinger of fundamental change. . . .