Another Reason to Go Local? Global Deforestation

Take it from someone who's spent the last year reading nothing but food-related books: if there's a good reason to give up eating a specific thing, I've tried giving it up. I stopped short of not eating plants based on a claim that they, too, might have feelings. But deforestation caused by foods? That's worth a serious look.

If you take great caution in your diet to eat "SOLE" foods (sustainable, organic, local, and ethical), here's another reason to ask where your food comes from.

This article at Planet Green rounds up seven common foods that contribute to deforestation worldwide—including rice, sugarcane, and palm oil (that wonderful ingredient that makes peanut butter easier to stir).

I've already eliminated a few of the perps on the list (factory farm beef, for instance, or corn-derived processed foods), but I'll have to get creative to combat a few of the others. In many cases, we can all be sure that our food choices don't contribute to deforestation simply by buying them local; for instance, four of the seven foods on this list are available at our farmer's market at some point during the year, and there's likely a local source for two more.

What do you think? Is deforestation a good enough reason to change some of your food habits?

(Image: Flickr member Mark Veraart, licensed under Creative Commons.)

Comments (1)

My husband and I have joined a CSA, and we put in for a garden plot (but we don't know if we'll get it for a few weeks). If there's any other stuff we need, we'll get it from the farmers market.

For the winter, we're going to be canning tomato products using the water boiler method, and buying a chest freezer to keep produce in. I'm looking into whether salad greens can be grown indoors during the winter.

This is new for us, so we're hoping it'll work out! If everything goes according to plan, we won't need to buy much or any out of season produce. However, there will always be a few things we buy. Fair trade coffee, and the occasional oranges, bananas, and avocado. We all have our weaknesses.