Is local always best?

[Hookster]

I took great heart from Monty Don when I read about how he had cooked a meal for Nigel Slater using produce mainly from his garden and certainly no further than 10 miles away.

I live in Newcastle and am fortunate enough to have an abundance of fantastic produce on my doorstep. However, the exceptions are notible:

If I want seabass that is a manageable size (and cost) it is farmed in Greece or Turkey (along with a host of other fish); King prawns are from Bangladesh or Nigeria; Tuna from the Gulf; consistently sized racks of lamb are from NewZealand; high quality pork from... don't know; and good duck is from France. What's more, the guys on the veg market complain that UK fruit and veg growers don't adhere to the same quality standards of selection, grading and packing as their European counterparts.

Don't get me wrong, I love the cod, haddock, halibut, crab and monkfish from the North Sea, Northumbrian (and organic) beef and lamb, excellent unpasteurised cheeses, local herbs & mushrooms, blackberries and wild garlic growing outside my door, botanically fermented drinks and so on, but for so much of the rest, I seem to have to venture further across the world.

I would dearly love to only ever eat local food produce but it just seems so limiting.

What do you think?

[vengroff]

It seems to me that how food products are handled during their journey is at least as important as the length of the journey. Which would you rather eat, a fish that was properly packed in ice and flown three thousand miles to your table, or a local fish caught this morning that sat in the back of a warm truck for an hour waiting to be unloaded?

[Basildog]

Local produce has a better chance of being a superior product , but not always.I don't stock Cornish wine, as i personally don't rate it highly, but i do sell a local bottled Ale, because its GOOD!

We don't sell any imported fish, as we have plenty of variety landed from our waters, so why bother?

It all depends..."local" is used on menus in the same way as "organic" is, a percived good thing.I buy local when the produce is good.The other benefit is that i try to spend my money in our area, where it has a good chance of coming back to me

[MatthewB]

Ideally, "local" = less packaging & less shipping cost. Which should translate to lower prices & less plastic & less utilized oil, etc.

This is where "local" may begin to trump "organic," in some senses.

[caroline]

My two cents worth. No local is not always best. Most of the history of food has been an attempt to escape the tyranny of the local. Sure local fresh vegetables in season are great, ditto fish etc. But the mantra of showcasing/depending on local foods as the be-all and end-all makes no sense.

RAchel

[MatthewB]

But the mantra of showcasing/depending on local foods as the be-all and end-all makes no sense.

Any examples of "local" as "the be-all & end-all"? Sounds a bit like a straw-man argument to me.

Edit: I'm speaking of examples other than the original post. There seems to be much middle ground to explore here. I've not heard enough folks chant the "local only" concept for me to consider it as a mantra.

Edited September 6, 2003 by MatthewB (log)

[John Whiting]

There are general principles here which cannot be applied universally and inflexibly. On the one hand, "local and seasonal" is a largely workable policy in California but not in Reykjavik. But the demand for food which is above all cheap has led British supermarkets into gradually strangling excellent and varied local food production by means of Third World exploitation.

[John Whiting]

Most of the history of food has been an attempt to escape the tyranny of the local.

There speaks a woman who has earned the right to generalize. If any proof were required, one need only mention the phrase "spice trade".

[JasonCampbell]

As Basildog has said, it isn't just local produce, it's local suppliers. I use my local butcher (not my nearest butcher) over a supermarket and benefit from seasonal produce at excellent prices. I'm also able to get meats that the supermarkets just don't stock. In my location we have excellent pork, good lamb and pheasant. For good beef I'm going to have to extend my 'local' boundary to 100 miles. Living in the Cotswolds I'm going to find fresh fish a rare treat, or take a trip to Cardiff fish market. So my point is that we should avail ourselves of the best of our local produce and support local shops to the best of our ability.

[PCL]

Being a relative newcomer to these Isles, and living in London, the apparent lack of local produce, meaning British, was a bit of a shock. After 2 years, however, one learns where the markets are and the chance to sample the fresh local stuff soon came along.

But the scariest thing was and still is the cost. Take today for instance, a trip to Borough Market left me £50 lighter. And what did I get to show for it that's local?... apple juice, bacon, toulouse sausages, shin steak, shallots, tomatos, and mushrooms. Parmigiano from Italy, duck confit from France, mushrooms from France, prosciutto and lardo from Italy. Got some sweetcorn too but of dubious provenance. So a 50-50 split or thereabouts.

Supermarkets are cheaper, but the trade offs are obviously freshness and overall quality. The strangling of small producers and suppliers definitely have something to do with it.

But another could be the relatively recent onset of an enthusiastic food awareness. The associated trendiness had also rendered London markets as 'places-to-be' with the young and affluent flocking to the logical presence of exotic food-stalls and the opportunity to source the stuff they read about and see on tv.

In Australia, where I'm from, we're just spoiled I guess, and the abundance of fresh local food stock a benefit of a young, relatively uncrowded country with plenty of land.

But good markets and suppliers are far and few in between in this town, and when you're sick of wondering about the hormone count in the chicken thigh in front of you, a couple more quid a week on the shopping docket won't seem like much for long.

[balex]

There are general principles here which cannot be applied universally and inflexibly. On the one hand, "local and seasonal" is a largely workable policy in California but not in Reykjavik.

I think this is the key point: when I lived in Rome, it was very easy to follow that rule -- and indeed given the provincialism of Italian consumers, this was clearly the best way to get the best food.

But in England this rule means no olive oil ever, and living on potatoes carrots and apples for 4 months of the year. For me the argument in favour of localism is not an ideological one, but just a practical one -- if you want fresh vegetables, eggs and fish you should try to source them locally. But I have no urge to buy locally those products where freshness is not an issue -- beef, cheese, honey or whatever.

[John Whiting]

. . . I have no urge to buy locally those products where freshness is not an issue -- beef, cheese, honey or whatever.

In a self-contained island like England/Scotland, buying local can in a sense mean supporting British food producers. British cheeses, for instance, now include world-class products, as has long been the case with British beers. The same with meats of all kinds.

On a narrower scale, the Ludlow Food Fair succeeds in exhibiting dozens of fine food products which must come from within a fifty mile radius.

[vserna]

The (growing!) difficulty of finding fishmongers who'll offer fresh British seafood in British cities of sometimes considerable size never ceases to amaze me, coming as I do from Spain, where fresh fish can be found even in sleepy Castilian villages hundreds of kilometers inland...

[Tonyfinch]

The (growing!) difficulty of finding fishmongers who'll offer fresh British seafood in British cities of sometimes considerable size never ceases to amaze me, coming as I do from Spain

It never ceases to amaze ME, coming as I do from Britain. I have heard various explanations for this appalling state of affairs but none of them make sense to me. Ultimately I suppose it must be about demand, but why the British are not demanding fresh fish and seafood everywhere when it would be so easy to supply it is a mystery.

[John Whiting]

Having stayed and eaten at Scottish fishing ports, I have been appalled at how difficult it can be in local shops to buy fish that are being landed within sight. Banff was almost unique in having a fish shop at the docks, complete with a tank of live crabs and lobsters.

[Hookster]

After tonight (and another godforsaken abortion of messed around rubbish) that's it! I've had enough! From now on I'm only going to eat produce from my doorstep as long as it is incredibly fresh, seasonal and not too expensive! Hopefully all from my, or my neighbours', gardens'/allotments.

[Suzi Edwards]

After tonight (and another godforsaken abortion of messed around rubbish) that's it! I've had enough! From now on I'm only going to eat produce from my doorstep as long as it is incredibly fresh, seasonal and not too expensive! Hopefully all from my, or my neighbours', gardens'/allotments.

dare i ask what happened?

[Trashers mum]

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb yes in the pink, in early spring but my family is sick and tired when I try to disguise tough green stems… this is an example of my dream (localisation) going wonky. I worry that local has become synonymous with organic. Local food has done its bit for the sustainable food chain (if only the transport bit) but where has that organic the basket come from? My eldest son made a valid point – just because its organic doesn’t mean that it tastes good hmm I had no answer. I understand that many of the supermarkets practice ‘category management’ meaning that they source from as few suppliers as possible a small local supplier doesn’t get a look in and yet the consumer marvels at the supermarket’s organic spread. Living in Scotland yes we want local produce on the school and hospital menus but John Writing’s point is driven home – lovely Ayrshire tatties aren’t harvested until the summer term is over. Sad but fact

[Hookster]

QUOTE (Hookster @ Sep 24 2003, 03:58 PM)

After tonight (and another godforsaken abortion of messed around rubbish) that's it! I've had enough! From now on I'm only going to eat produce from my doorstep as long as it is incredibly fresh, seasonal and not too expensive! Hopefully all from my, or my neighbours', gardens'/allotments.

dare i ask what happened?

I cannot bring myself even near to describing how my gut was violated so badly. I'm not talking cheap food that tasted cheap, no, my expectations were on a high, only to be dashed like a fragile glass bottle on the ground.