A few weeks ago I listened to Louis Fresco’s TEDtalk on “Feeding the Whole World.”  By the way, if you don’t listen to the TED podcast please subscribe to it now).  I’ve been thinking about it ever since and have more than once used it as part of an argument on behalf of responsible corporate farming.

Two things really struck me about Louis Fresco’s argument and the audience’s response.  First, Fresco argues that by moving beyond subsistence farming the world has made a great deal of progress (in all kinds of fields, medicine, technology, etc) and that the tendency to romanticize the small farmer ignores what grueling, difficult work it really is.  She also suggests that mass produced bread can provide a large number of calories for many people in the developing world.  Now, we can argue about the associations between bread and obesity, large farming and resource allocation, etc. etc. etc.  However, I think she is absolutely right to suggest that a regional farming model that looks at the benefits of mechanization and better/safer/cheaper fertilizers in feeding a lot of people nutritionally.

“14799_2.jpg” via Thomas Barta’s Flickr Stream, licensed via the Creative Commons.

Second, I was struck by how resentful many of the TED Blog readers comments were.  I think she’s cutting against the grain (no pun intended) of much liberal/contemporary food practices, i.e. eat local, eat organic, eat from small farms.  She highlights the problem with the farmer’s market model, especially in major cities in the developing world where they are simply not practical.  Urban farming, what she describes as “fish ponds in parking lots,” will certainly help.  However, to feed entire cities of several million people with a range of incomes will require more than window herb gardens and rooftop veggie patches.  Although she’s marginally defending larger farms what she’s really arguing for is that we think about WHY industrial farming took off (and that probably isn’t because of evil business men alone)– it does feed a lot of people with comparatively low cost.

So… this all got me thinking, not just about calories in but also about the energy required when I make things I can buy that are mass produced.  I’m back at that place where I’m weighing costs, benefits, and harms.  For example, I started making my own yogurt so I could avoid plastic waste.  However, I’m using a lot of energy (about 48 hours from the wall socket) to make not much yogurt (about 3 cups at a time).  Would it be better for the environment if I bought mass produced yogurt (organic, RBGH-free) than making it at home?  What about the amount of energy I use to make 1 loaf of bread at home v. making 500 loaves at once at the Wonder Bread factory?  And then you’re figuring in transportation and that leads us back to the whole Eat Local command.

I’ll freely admit that I think Fresco’s logic is sound and the argument makes sense.  The hard part is how to balance the command to “think about where you are in the food chain” with what to prioritize: local v. regional, effecient production v. overuse, calories v. nutrition.  Actually, these aren’t even diametrically opposed pairs.  Yes, lots of confusion here now about what I should be doing re: my food choices.