When I first saw this video at Fast Company Design, I was quite surprised to see that the video and the subsequent ‘Real Food Movement‘ is actually funded and run by the Canadian sect of Hellmann’s (yes the mayonnaise company). To be honest, while I cannot not comment on Hellmann’s mayonnaise’s status as sustainable or ‘real food’ I can certainly say they are giving justice and impressive visibility to the local/sustainable/healthy food movement.
While the import/export ratios presented in the video are a little more drastic than America’s (Canada has a shorter growing season and has no California or Florida) generally the arguments made are trans-national. I guess there should be no surprise that a campaign such as this might come to fruition in a country like Canada. While concerns revolving climate change, economics, and local food sovereignty in the face of global food crises are not unique to Canada, they are of more immediate concern. As I already alluded to, the developed countries of the north, many parts of the US, but also countries like the British Isles, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, have become particularly reliant on certain fruit and vegetable imports. If global food trade were to collapse or be temporarily paused within days these countries would run out of many fresh fruits and vegetables. It is not impossible to grow adequate amounts of food in these places, but given there post-agrarian economies, these countries have traded the difficulties of food production for the convenience of the global food system. Increasingly this convenience is being viewed as a risky dependence. Localism emerges as a way of mediating this dependence.
While farmer-consumer relationships are mentioned in this video (one of the typical accolades of localism), local food is being emphasized in this video primarily as a political and economic force. As such, ‘Eat Canadian’ is a form of nationalism as much as a form of localism… sort of a ‘for us, by us’ economic model. But to some extent the value in precisely differentiating between nationalism, regionalism, and localism is questionable. The scales of food systems certainly matter but they also have to be taken on a case by case basis. If you live in Toronto and you buy wine from British Columbia (2000 miles) versus wine from the Finger Lakes (200 miles) in the United States, then ‘eating Canadian’ is clearly a decision driven by nationalist ideals not local (or perhaps BC wine is just better?).
Eating local will not save the world, but it is a start. A definition of local as a particular economic exchange, a particular distance, a particular heritage is not the point. If local is to be a solution to food crises, hunger, and climate change it is something we will have to each define for ourselves. Executed through captivating graphics, here’s one such opinion.
Enjoy the show…
