When reading a recent issue of Adbusters magazine, I came across an article discussing an issue that had not really ever occurred to me - our current food system.

Nicholas Klassen writes,

New Zealand is 7,500 miles from the Okanagan valley of British Columbia, Canada. So why are BC grocery stores flush with New Zealand apples when perfectly good ones are grown in the Okanagan? In 2002, BC apple exports totalled 77 million pounds, while apple imports from New Zealand and elsewhere ran to 111 million pounds. British Columbians need more apples than they produce, but wouldn’t it make sense to eat the apples their neighbors grow before bringing them in from the other side of the Pacific? What’s more, many of the Okanagan farmers who could have made up the difference have been driven out of the industry by cheap imports. With the flood of foreign apples, those who didn’t qualify for government assistance to upgrade their orchards or shift into different crops have had to tear up trees and sell their land….Free-market enthusiasts argue that consumers deserve the lowest price, and if New Zealanders can provide better value, good for them. But what is the true cost of shipping an apple from one hemisphere to another? What are the true costs of production, processing, packaging, and transportation with the standard food delivery system as compared to a local one?

I wholly encourage people to check out this short piece as it really got my mind spinning…