Local food not safer, healthier or better for environment: Fraser Institute study

While consumers like to buy local food, the common beliefs that locally-grown food is tastier and better for the economy and environment are all myths, according to a new study by the Vancouver-based think-tank Fraser Institute.

“Canadians may be surprised to learn that the global food supply chain — and not the local farmers’ market — provides safer, more affordable food that is better for the environment,” said Pierre Desrochers, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and an associate professor at the University of Toronto.

Desrochers’ study, titled The Myths of Local Food Policy: Lessons from the Economic and Social History of the Food System, said the notion of local food promoting economic development is a myth. The study said that retailers will sell local food when it best meets the retailer’s quality-to-price ratio.

Desrochers argued that cheaper imports leave more money in the consumers’ pockets to spend on other things, which will lead to more job creation overall. He also argued that exporting food products can increase sales and profits, reduce dependency on local markets, and helps protect growers from Canadian market fluctuations.

The study also disputed that local food is tastier, more nutritious and safer than food grown from farther away. Desrochers argued there is no correlation between freshness and nutritional value, but there is one between long-distance trade and the year-round availability of fresh produce. He argued that large supermarkets are safer than farmers’ markets, “which are usually temporary outdoor events with few facilities and whose vendors have, in general, received only the most basic training in food hygiene.”

Another myth, said Desrochers, is that local food is better for the environment, emitting less greenhouse gases than food shipped from more distant places.

“The fact is that the notion of ‘food miles,’ meaning the distance between farms and final consumers, is a meaningless environmental indicator,” the report read. “The distance travelled matters less than the mode of transportation. For instance, moving foodstuffs halfway around the Earth on a container ship often has a smaller footprint per item carried than a relatively short ride by pick-up truck to deliver produce from an alternative farm to urban farmers’ markets.”

The Fraser Institute report is not the first one to come to the same conclusion. In 2013, a Conference Board of Canada report said “there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that local food by itself has significant environmental and food safety benefits over non-local food.”

Local food might also not be as local as one might think. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency defines local as anything grown within a province, and sold within 50 km into a neighbouring province. So, food grown in Kenora could be sold in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, 22 hours away, and be labelled as local food.