Policy

The Locavore's Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-Mile Diet

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"If you take the local food movement to its logical extreme…people who live beyond their local food chain are essentially parasites," explains economic geographer Pierre Desrochers, co-author of the book The Locavore's Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet .

Using economic and historical data, Desrochers and his co-author Hiroko Shimizu pick apart the latest food activist trend extolling the benefits of eating local. "If everything was so great when most food was sourced locally centuries ago," asks Desrochers, "why did we go through the trouble of developing a globalized food supply chain in the first place?"

Desrochers sat down with ReasonTV's Nick Gillespie to discuss the book, the benefits of factory farming, and the enduring nature of food activism.

About 5:45 minutes.

Cameras by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain. Edited by Meredith Bragg.

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