Dr. Don Boudreaux on Localization

Well-stated, as usual. This locavore / eat local movement really bugs me.

Cafe Hayek: Progressive Superstition: "But paradise had its price. Starvation was common, as was death by plague. Giving birth was more dangerous for women than a game of Russian Roulette. People lived in tiny one-room dirt-floor huts without indoor plumbing. During the winter, some of the farm animals (all local!) shared these accommodations."

Cafe Hayek: More on the Absurdity of "Localization": " [Localization] is absolutely absurd, for any number of reasons. I'll just list three: It doesn't work. The total energy used for transport, say of food products, is a small percentage of the total energy used in the total production process. The energy transportation budget is generally smaller than efficiency gains from scale or from optimizing location. For example, a wheat farm in Arizona on 50 acres is going to use a lot more energy (and water, and fertilizer, and manpower) than a wheat farm on a thousand acres in North Dakota."

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