financial zen

It’s reassuring to read it a million times on PF blogs, and once again in class:

“The rich get rich by spending less than you earn.”

That’s right, folks. It’s an educational, economical factoid for your consumption.

Even the glorious, never-wrong (truthiness?) wikipedia has an article about local food.

Of course, they pull in the economical problems of eating locally - mainly the problem in a free market, and the damage that can be done if we don’t support the world market. The world requires free trade - a world economy can’t go ’round if we don’t all put in our share.

As well - they bring the variety issue - we can’t get summer foods year round without it. However, by growing in season, foods are fresher and tastier - particularly when you grow them yourselves, so it’s got your blood, sweat and tears in it. You put yourself into your food - your spirit - and it comes out when you harvest. I don’t think shopping gives the same satisfaction.

Ahhh, economics. Everywhere we want to be. As a student, my thoughts are still incomplete, maybe you have something to add?

In my last post I wrote about stumbling upon community supported agriculture - eat locally grown food. Prior to finding this gem, in response to my high gas prices commentary Jay pointed out:

My gut says it’s possible that food grown elsewhere and trucked in could still be “better” for the environment than that grown locally due to various efficiency considerations. But I’m not making any claims as I have absolutely no idea which one is better. So, show me the data.

Now, very often writers (myself included) write stories based on loose information - half truths, speculation, or theories. So I’m going to attempt to look into the 100-mile diet and can we really save the world in doing so?

The 100 mile diet site has 13 reasons to eat local - here’s the ones that I feel highlight the economical reasons:

• 4. Get in touch with the seasons. - I love this one. Eat in season foods means eating foods when they are at their best and fresh, not frozen from god knows where (which means not putting the impact of world-wide travel on your food).
• 7. Save the world. - Yes, you can save the world as an Iowa study found. More information (like how much money would be pumped back into the local economy) can be found at WorldChanging.
• 13. And always remember. - Everything about food and cooking is a metaphor for sex. Okay, so it’s not an economical reason, but still, a little sex in cooking for two is never a bad thing.

Miles to Go Before I Eat has calculations available to help show the different methods of food traveling to your doorstep - it’s not pretty how much energy is wasted for far-off eats!

Has anyone else come across information arguing for eating locally? Or has anyone come across definitive information detailing how it’s all a crock?