Red Herrings
The issues around resilient, low carbon food systems are not obvious. For the last decade sustainable food has become associated with one or two very simplistic concepts, such as local food. This section discusses why a much more sophisticated understanding of that concept is needed. To give an obvious example, pigs grown 5 miles up the road on grain that has been hauled 100 miles and soya grown in Brazil (possibly increasing pressures for deforestation in the Amazon) is neither a low-carbon nor a resilient food; but many farmers' markets and other "local food" initiatives would be proud to feature such a product.
Another belief which we believe to be misguided is the assumption that, since the Supermarkets control 80-90% of our food supply, we need to work with them to build a more sustainable food system. EAFL's experience, after many years of hard work, is that supermarkets can and will do very little, because they rely on a model of consumerism that is insufficient to bring about the changes that are needed. We would argue that, at this stage in history, only purposeful action by informed citizens - for example through Community-Supported Agriculture - is sufficient to bring about a sustainable food system.