The National Resources Defense Council says we should make an effort to “Eat Local.” The overall tone of the website aside, I think there’s some merit to that idea.
When I first came to Japan, I decried the fact that the selection at the grocery store was basically limited to whatever was in season - I wanted watermelons in February, dammit! I mistakenly thought that, since it’s warm in California, everything is in season there all the time. I never looked at the labels on the produce and saw that we get tons of stuff from Chile, China, and maybe even Chad.
Now THAT is a February watermelon!
Now, Japan is no saint when it comes to eating locally like the folks at NRDC say we should. According to this 2008 article in the Japan times, their total food self-sufficiency rate was 39% by volume in 2006. That means that the whole country produced enough food to cover what 4 out of 10 people actually ate.
That leaves two options - starve, or eat those soybeans from China. For some Japanese who buy into occasional reports (and some sensationalism) about tainted Chinese imports, that’s a tougher choice than it appears to be.
One thing that I find similar between the United States and Japan is that it’s easy to look at the price of produce and end up grabbing the imported stuff because it’s cheaper (without noticing the label). I can’t claim to remember the difference in the States because it’s been awhile, but the difference between Japanese and foreign produce is pronounced. My anecdotal evidence includes 80 to 100% markups on Japanese broccoli, garlic, and soybeans, and I will probably dig up a lot more if I care to when I move closer to the biggest port in the country (and, by extension, farther away from domestic farms).
However, it is pretty easy to avoid buying the more exotic fruits or things that are out of season because they are laughably expensive, bananas aside. Hothouse watermelons are more than double the cost of my beloved February watermelons in California, oranges from Australia are always unreasonably priced, and even domestic apples get ridiculous (and less delicious) in the summer time.
Kochi dwellers are fortunate to be able to buy local across the board, and chances are that if the fruit or vegetable is not grown in Kochi itself, it’s grown somewhere else on Shikoku Island. Sure, it means passing on pineapple now and then, but this is definitely a very easy place to eat local.
Other places in the world, not so much. The NRDC offers this nifty seasonal chart for every United State during periods throughout the year. As you probably guessed, Southern Californians wouldn’t have to change too much to eat local. Why, even in early February, the list reads like so:
artichokes, asparagus, avocado, beets, blood oranges, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard, collards, dates (Medjool), grapefruit, green onion, green peas, kale, kohlrabi, kumquats, lemons, lettuce, mushroom, mustard, navel oranges, passion fruit, spinach, strawberries, tangelos, tangerines, turnips
Yeah, we could make that work. Just don’t ask us to drink local . . .
You can look at a summary of the full year for any state, and the picture is bleak in some of them. North Dakota only gets cabbage and gourds from early October to late December, nothing at all from then to early April, and then cabbage again until late June. No thank you.
And check out Michigan gets to eat in the wintertime . . . poor schmucks.
If they get tired of those, they could always go to New York and eat some art.
Thanks to atlanticseeds.com.au for the watermelon image.
