The signs are seemingly everywhere lately: eating locally, thinking locally, are fundamentally the best options in our distressed global economy. Fuel prices are forcing people to rethink how much they travel, and how much their food travels. It's clearly effective, you can see how it levels the playing field on pricing, for example, between local and imported goods. The price we pay at the register isn't the only cost attached to our food, though. As Joel Salatin suggests in Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma", local sustainably produced food doesn't incur the costs as mass produced food: government regulations and subsidies; damage to the earth and our water supply; health care costs and food borne illnesses. There's more attached to that tomato from South America than meets the eye, but the ultimate costs are slowly revealing themselves. Grocery stores are picking up on this a bit, now. One chain now promotes "grown close to home", though this is little more than a marketing tool right now: it's just rebadged produce they would sell anyways. Don't expect New Zealand apples to be pulled from the shelves anytime soon.
While I was perusing the aisles of the afore mentioned grocery store, I had to stop to read a sign posted in the rice section, explaining the necessity to increase prices due to world wide shortages. Now, I don't eat rice much, because it doesn't make sense to me from a local consumer's perspective, but this is going to get worse. Poor growing conditions, rising fuel and fertilizer prices, and the shift to allocating land to the thoughtless production of ethanol all add to rising costs with rice, corn and soy beans. So far, my potatoes are safe...
One last thing - someone needs to explain the recent call to cull 150,000 swine to me. The government subsidized $50 million program offers farmers $225 per animal to destroy it in order to decrease supply and encourage farmers to "exit the industry", all in an attempt to save depressed pork prices from a glut in the market (much from American imports, oddly enough).
The dimly shining light in all of this - the government has graciously allowed (only) 25% of culled animals to be donated to food bank programs. Sad times indeed for industrially produced animals.