In his recent article "
Attention Whole Foods Shoppers," Robert Paarlberg (whom I have heard speak various times) makes some great points:
Helping the world's poor feed themselves is no longer the rallying cry it once was. Food may be today's cause célèbre, but in the pampered West, that means trendy causes like making food "sustainable" -- in other words, organic, local, and slow.
Influential food writers, advocates, and celebrity restaurant owners are repeating the mantra that "sustainable food" in the future must be organic, local, and slow. But guess what: Rural Africa already has such a system, and it doesn't work.
I totally endorse a healthy diet with as much raw, unprocessed, and natural foods as possible. Nevertheless, desires of achieving/imposing such a model ("organic, local and slow") around the world are misplaced and untenable.
