I dont' have a lot of time, either, but I'm currently reading James McWilliams' _Just Food: Where Locavores get it wrong and how can truly eat responsibly_. His opening chapter is a critique of this kind of nostalgia for a agricultural life that never was, an argument supported by people who are locavores based on their own experiences of the breakdown of locavorism and on a growing body of research around locavore lore and practice.
He shows how the concept of 'food miles' is based on a lot of faulty assumptions - really just a number pulled out of thin air. He talks about the growing body of research that shows that, as an example, locavore practices (which require driving to the farm market, to the orchard, and to a dry goods store to buy items you can't get on the farm) actually produce a bigger carbon footprint than the typical shopper who shops once a week. McWilliams shows that the really high carbon foot print for some food is actually in the production (where the real savings could be found with different methods) and a tiny fraction is in the transport. The scientists studying these things use LCAs - Life Cycle Assessments which is a far more complex and accurate way to gauge carbon footprint, but which can't be reduced to happy little slogans like "eat your view."
Basically, he's not saying locavorism is to be shot out the window but, rather, that it should be part of a larger portfolio of ways to address the problems we're facing.
One of the more interesting things he brings up is the locavore's faith in the small market to fix problems. Pollan was big on that, believing that, if small farmers came face to face with consumers, you could count on a better system altogether. But what happens is often that a small group of people end up defining what's fresh, what's local, what's good for you, etc. The results of this more ethnographic research on what really happens in this markets prompted a locavore, Melanie DuPuis, to ask, "Who gets to define the local?" E.g., in one instance, once eating locally became really popular, the local chefs would get to the farm market early and buy everything up, leaving ordinary people buying for families with nothing. Big blow out between local restaurants and local families was then superceded when corporate buyers started showing up and trumping even the local restaurant owners.
Interesting book so far, though I'm only into the first chapter so far.
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