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Arguing a Position

There have been growing concerns regarding the impacts of consumption on the

environment. Environmentalists have been concerned about the levels of carbon emissions from

food production and the need for increased consumption to serve the needs of the growing

population. The growing American population poses greater threats to the environment as the need

for food production, storage, refrigeration and transportation increases in line with the growing

demand. The paper argues that there would be a greater benefit to the environment when

consumers buy local food. The essay is a response to Katherine Spriggs “On Buying Local”.

Spriggs (92) argues that buying local foods would lead to the reduction of the

environmental challenges in a number of ways. Buying local foods would require compromises by

the consumers especially the need to consume the products that were in season and reducing the

need for varieties all year around. Buying local would help to reduce the energy usage as well as

the use of oil thus reducing the effects that the consumption had on the environment. According to

Spriggs (92) buying local would also bring such benefits such as efficiency and useful ways of

living thus help the entire world to deal with the problems that were brought about by the global

warming. The pollution and the reducing stocks of fossil fuels was a major concern for Spriggs

thus the call to local consumption as a means of reducing the reliance on the fossil fuels in the

production as well as the transportation of the foods from the firms to the final consumers.

According to Spriggs (93) more than 1.5 billion pounds of pesticides were manufactured in the US

alone thus contributing to the pollution of the air, water and soil. The shift to buy local would

reduce the need for such pesticides and fertilizers as the small firms are more focused on

continuous production thus the pesticides used in one growing circle can be used in the next cycle.
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The effect would be a reduction on the usage of the fertilizers and pesticides thus reducing the

levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

Jeffery, Barclays and Grosvenor (214) agreed with the views of Spriggs especially the need

to reduce the effects of the consumption on the environment. Jeffrey et al contend that buying local

helps in cutting down on the environmental effects of the food production especially the need for

the food to travel thousands of kilometers around the world before it can get to the table of the

consumer. They call for the reduction of the dependence on the exotic foods and instead call on

consumers to change their consumption habits towards the foods that are locally grown and are in

season. Jeffery, Barclays and Grosvenor (214) noted “…buy local produce…to cut down on the

environmental impacts of food travelling around the globe… [the consumers are more likely to eat

what is] in season …lettuce in the summer and apples in the fall…”

The support for buying local also comes from the view by Spriggs (96) that local firms are

more sustainable as they make use of natural and local resources. The small firms make use of

farming techniques that are more sustainable as they significantly reduce the need for chemicals.

The small firms also focus on the reduction and where possible the elimination of wastes. The

compost from the animal farm is usually used in the crop farms as manure. The small firms also

focus on the rotation practices such as rotating the crops to avoid the depletion of the natural

resources in the land or alternate use of the lands for crop and animal use. This helps in keeping

the land healthy (Spriggs 96). Green and Phillips (1) agree with Spriggs in regards to the

sustainability of local farms as compared to the mechanized and large farms due to the increased

use of fertilizers and pesticides that lead to pollution and affect the environment.

The main counterargument to the views of Spriggs (99) is regards the efficiency of the

local firms. Spriggs argue that the small firms are more efficient than the big farms. The view
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above is supported by Lamers, Khamzina, Rudenko and Vlek (39) who also note that there has

been a recurrent argument that “an increase in farm size may improve [efficiency]”. Lamers et al

(39) noted that based on the worldwide experience, it has been noted that small farms use the

resources more efficiently.

In conclusion, buying local foods would lead to greater benefits to the environment as

compared to the need for variety of foods that call for the importation of food from international

locations. The buying of local foods would reduce the need for long trucking and transportation of

the food, reduce the need to refrigerate the food thus ensuring that the energy and oil use is reduced.

This in effect leads to the reduction of the levels of emissions and thus the reduction of global

warming.
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Works cited

Green, Gary P, and Rhonda Phillips. Local Food and Community Development.

Routledge, 2014.

Jeffery, Yvonne, et al. Green Living for Dummies. Wiley Pub, 2010.

Lamers, John P. A., et al. Restructuring Land Allocation, Water Use and Agricultural Value

Chains: Technologies, Policies and Practices for the Lower Amudarya Region. Bonn

UP, 2015.

Spriggs, Katherine. “On Buying Local.” Everyone’s an Author. Ed. Angela Lunsford, et al. New

York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 92-100.