Locavorism: The Problem Of What To Eat

In the beginning of time, if people wanted to eat they would have to gather their food from plants. Many years later, someone discovered that if you buried your food in the ground, a new plant would grow there. As this method of food cultivation was further explored, it became increasingly popular. Those who had previously been nomads began to set up villages and devote their lives to farming. This was the first agricultural revolution. In the 1700s, the Second Agricultural Revolution began, introducing a plethora of new technologies to assist in farming. This revolution made farming much easier, and allowed people to increase the size of their farms. Before long, farmers were harvesting more food than they needed to feed their families. These …show more content…
As drawn from the table in The Problem of What to Eat, production costs are higher than any other aspect of agribusiness. With long-range commercial farming, high transportation rates must be added to the production costs. After factoring all of these costs in, it can be concluded that shipping foods over a long distance is not efficient. Companies that are selling to a local market, however, would not need to cover such high expenditures on preservatives or advanced packaging equipment. In addition to that, buying local foods coincides with natural seasonal quantities, allowing for optimal prices. As Jennifer Maiser states in 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food, “Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating with the seasons, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive”. Basically, this means that by eating locally you get higher quality food at a more affordable