Food Miles?!

This week's MacLeans has an article in it that surprised me. "It's All About those peas from China", i s full of interesting and to some degree, slightly shocking material about the frozen produce we consume on a regular basis all winter. As the major shopper in the household, I have been more and more depressed about the surprises I have had at my local grocery stores. From my perspective, they haven't been pleasant ones.

For years, I have been able to buy frozen vegetables, with relative confidence. As an Ontario resident, it was important to me to have that locally grown produce in the cold of the winter. Somehow, the latest practices of our retailers and food processors, slipped under my guard, while life happened.

I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, manufacturers of everything else are 'outsourcing ' in droves.

This brings me to the concept of the Food Miles, also mentioned in the article. I think it is a idea the public needs to hear more about. I believe they want to but 'local' and Canadian, but no one, not farmers, governments and certainly not processors, are making it easy. What foolishness, to import products like frozen vegetables, milk powders or whatever, that can be grown here. The cost in terms of 'food miles' and the environment, is enormous and wasteful, not to mention the financial devastation seen in agriculture.

Now add in the incredible disaster facing pet food companies who 'sourced' a product like wheat gluten, incidentally, from China and got way more than they ever expected! This stuff could easily have been for human consumption. See what some believe is the root cause.

It would seem to me, that smart agriculture groups, should be having a good hard look at harnessing the enormous power of the public. Standards like the ones proposed nationally for cheese and have processors screaming, should be important to consumers, if they knew about it!

Considering the continuing food fiasco's from offshore, I certainly have no confidence in ideas like 'comparative' or 'similar' standards, forced on an unsuspecting public, by our governments, businesses and the WTO.

With the environment and global warming hitting the levels it currently is, perhaps Food Miles, are an idea whose time is come.-CG