Food Transport Industry Thinks Food Miles Are Awesome!

OK, this is a dog-bites-man story, I admit. A brief blurb published on the trade web site Food Manufacturing, announces “Agriculture Expert To Dispel Locavore Myth”. The release goes on to explain:

Roger A. Cady, Ph.D., Senior Technical Consultant at Elanco, will dispel the myth that purchasing locally grown food is better for the environment than buying from grocery retailers, during a presentation to members of the Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference (AFTC) of the American Trucking Associations.

There is nothing remarkable in this announcement. It’s a meeting of people who are in the business of shipping large quantities of food long distances, and they are defending their business. That is one of the two main reasons for industry associations to exist: to defend it from challenges, as this event seems intent on; the other being to play offense, i. e., promote the industry.

What it does show is that there seems to be a circling of the wagons going on in the food industry in response to certain consumer trends on the one hand, and the many negative food-related stories that have made it to the mainstream media, on the other. The main trend I have in mind is the dramatic growth in farmers’ markets, and its related interest in locally-produced food. The negative publicity includes Michael Pollan’s recent book tour appearances, in which he plainly advises people to stop buying processed food; publicity generated by Food, Inc. being nominated for an Academy Award (as well as being promoted on Pollan’s appearances); recent prominent features on both CBS and ABC network news programs highlighting the routine use of antibiotics in livestock operations, and the cruel treatment of dairy cows in large factory farms, respectively; and the almost weekly reports of bacterial contamination of various food products. Note that Pollan has not been emphasizing the local issue in his latest publicity tour, and the book he’s promoting, “Food Rules” only mentions it a few times. But his main attack, pursued relentlessly throughout the book and in his appearances, is on processed food products. This is the biggest and most profitable part of the food industry, which I speculate accounts for the vast majority of shipping volume, the issue the folks attending this meeting care most about. Therefore Pollan’s main message is seen as a major threat, and the whole farmers’ market/food miles stuff is just a red herring.

But Big Food has clearly decided to focus on food miles, and to use the still-obscure term locavore. This allows them to focus on efficiency and logistics, where their numbers are likely correct. I have no doubt that moving mass quantities of mass-produced goods through our elaborate inter-modal freight transport system does consume, on a per unit basis, less energy than small scale movement of goods. This focus on door-to-door transport conveniently ignores all of the many other forms of degradation of the environment and human and animal health wrought by the food system as a whole. Focusing on this equation also allows them to completely avoid the real reasons for the growth in farmers’ markets and local food: the food available there is vastly superior in every way. It’s fresher, it tastes better, it’s healthier and it’s actually fun to buy. If the industry had to publicly concede these things, they would be in the awkward position of telling consumers to stop buying fresher, tastier, and healthier food. Long term, that’s a losing strategy. So, I believe they are hoping to stem the growth of this movement to farmers’ markets by casting aspersions and using the alien-sounding locavore epithet to describe the already lost.

It’s also interesting that a meeting of transportation specialists is having as their guest speaker, Roger Cady, a rBGH specialist, who worked for Monsanto nine years until their rBGH product Posilac was acquired by Elanco, a division of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, where he now works. No doubt he was booked because he has been a tireless promoter of the idea that factory farming is sustainable and environmentally friendly. I guess the stakeholders in the industrial food system are feeling that they are all in this together.