The Locavore's Dilemma (32 page)

16
Jane Jacobs. 1969.
The Economy of Cities
. Random House, p. 7.

17
Plato. Around 360 BCE.
The Republic
, Book II
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.3.ii.html
.

18
For a popular history of these latter developments, see Susan Freidberg. 2009.
Fresh. A Perishable History.
Belknap Press (Harvard University Press). For a more concise discussion of these advances in the French context, see Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu. 2010.
L'autosuffisance alimentaire n'est pas gage de développement durable
. Cahier de recherche de l'Institut économique Molinari
http://www.institutmolinari.org/IMG/pdf/cahier1010_fr.pdf
.

19
George Rogers Taylor. 1951.
The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860 (Volume IV: The Economic History of the United States)
. Harper Torchbooks, p. 160.

20
Oscar Diedrich von Engeln. 1920. “The World's Food Resources.”
Geographical Journal
9 (3): 174. For an introduction to the academic literature and debates on the subject along with further references, see, among others, C. Knick Harley. 1988. “Ocean Freight Rates and Productivity, 1740–1913: The Primacy of Mechanical Invention Reaffirmed.”
Journal of Economic History
48 (4): 851-876.

21
Stanley Jevons. 1905.
The Principles of Economics : A Fragment of a Treatise on the Industrial Mechanisms of Society and Other Papers
, MacMillan, p. 28
http://www.archive.org/details/principlesofecon00jevouoft
.

22
Christian Wolmar. 2010.
Blood, Iron & Gold. How the Railroads Transformed the World.
PublicAffairs, p. 223.

23
In the middle of the 19th century, Parisian truck farmers worked between eighteen and twenty hours a day during the seven busiest months and between
fourteen and sixteen during the rest of the year. These long hours could be traced back to “normal” agricultural chores in light of the technologies of the time (for instance, controlling pests and weeds, irrigating crops and trucking produce to market and manure back to production grounds were much more labor intensive practices than they would later become), but also to the fact that because these producers were growing things in what was for most of the year an unsuitable climate, they made an extensive use of protective devices like cloches, cold frames and unheated greenhouses and had to ensure almost daily that plants would not overheat in the sun or freeze at night. For instance, because cloches and hotbeds could overheat on sunny days, growers would spend hours manually propping them open in the morning and closing them at night. See J. G. Moreau and J. J. Daverne. 1845.
Manuel pratique de la culture maraîchère de Paris
. V. Bouchard-Huzard, p. 84
http://books.google.ca/books?id=YclBAAAAIAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
.

24
For an introduction to the topic, see G. Stanhill. 1977. “An Urban Agro-Ecosystem. The Example of Nineteenth Century Paris.”
Agro-Ecosystems
3: 269–284.

25
J. G. Moreau and J. J. Daverne. 1845.
Manuel pratique de la culture maraîchère de Paris
. V. Bouchard-Huzard, p. 85
http://books.google.ca/books?id=YclBAAAAIAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
.

26
Avant l'introduction des cultures forcées dans les marais de Paris, la classe maraîchère… ne jouissait que d'une faible considération… aujourd'hui il n'en est plus ainsi » and « leur seule ambition… est de chercher les moyens d'arriver les premiers à porter des primeurs à la halle” J. G. Moreau and J. J. Daverne. 1845.
Manuel pratique de la culture maraîchère de Paris
. V. Bouchard-Huzard, pp. 85 and 83
http://books.google.ca/books?id=YclBAAAAIAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
.

27
Of course, these numbers are only rough estimates. See Alberto Zezza and Luca Tasciotti. 2010. “Urban Agriculture, Poverty and Food Security: Empirical Evidence from a Sample of Developing Countries.”
Food Policy
35 (4): 265-273.

28
Lorian P. Jefferson. 1926. “The Balance of Trade in Farm Products.”
Journal of Farm Economics
8 (4): 451–461, p. 451.

29
Edward Francis Adams and Louis Adalbert Clinton. 1899.
The Modern Farmer in his Business Relations: A study of some of the principles underlying the art of profitable farming and marketing, and of the interests of farmers as affected by modern social and economic conditions and forces.
N.J. Stone Company, p. 16
http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2927196
.

30
The original quote is “la vapeur a supprimé les saisons” by Henri Hitier, 1901. “L'évolution de l'agriculture.”
Annales de géographie
10 (54): 385–400, p. 386.

31
Jacques Redway, 1907.
Commercial Geography. A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges
. Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 1–2
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24884/24884-h/24884-h.htm
.

32
Susanne Freidberg. 2009.
Fresh. A Perishable History.
Belknap Press (Harvard University Press), p. 9.

33
Jacques W. Redway. 1923.
Geography. Commercial and Industrial.
Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 82–83.

34
For a more detailed look at the issue, see Ndiame Diop and Steven M. Jaffee, 2005. “Fruits and Vegetables: Global Trade and Competition in Fresh and Processed Product Markets.” In M. Ataman Aksoy and John C. Beghin (eds)
Global Agricultural Trade and Developing Countries
, World Bank, pp. 237–57.
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGAT/Resources/GATChapter13.pdf
.

35
For a more detailed discussion of the issue, see Robert Tripp. 2002.
Seed Provision & Agricultural Development: The Institutions of Rural Change
.
Overseas Development Institute; and Robert Tripp. 2003. “How to Cultivate a Commercial Seed Sector.” Overseas Development Institute
http://www.syngentafoundation.org/db/1/447.pdf
.

36
Matt Ridley. 2010.
The Rational Optimist. How Prosperity Evolves
. HarperCollins Publishers, p. 149.

37
For a detailed survey of these issues, see Indur M. Goklany. 2007.
The Improving State of the World
. Cato Institute. We will address health and safety concerns in more details in chapter 6. On food prices, suffice it to say that the average wheat price in the late 20th century was only 10% of the historical average in previous centuries. The same basket of agricultural goods bought in the United States in the early 21st century cost only about a third as much as it would have five decades earlier and in the United Kingdom about only one-thirteenth of what it would have cost 150 years earlier. On that last statistics, see BBC News UK. 2012. “Groceries ‘Cheaper' Now than in 1862,
Grocer
Magazine Finds.” (January 6)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16450526
.

38
David J. Spielman and Rajul Pandya-Lorch. 2009.
Millions Fed. Proven Success in Agricultural Development.
International Food Policy Research Institute.
http://www.ifpri.org/book-5826/ourwork/programs/2020-vision-food-agriculture-and-environment/millions-fed-intiative
.

39
Peter Garnsey. 1999.
Food and Society in Classical Antiquity
. Cambridge University Press, pp. 23–24.

40
See, among others, Kym Anderson. 2009.
Five Decades of Distortion to Agricultural Incentives.
Agricultural Distortion Working Paper No. 76. World Bank
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTTRADERESEARCH/Resources/544824-1163022714097/Five_decades_of_distortions_0309rev.pdf
.

41
Joseph Edward de Steiguer. 2006.
The Origins of Modern Environmental Thought
. University of Arizona Press, p. 6.

42
Basic information on these experiments can be found on the American Transcendentalism website
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/index.html
and on the Fruitlands Museum website
http://www.fruitlands.org/
. Louisa May Alcott's 1873 satire
Transcendental Wild Oats
is based on her family's experience at Fruitlands. It is available online in her collection of short stories
Silver Pitchers: and Independence
http://books.google.ca/books?id=-5m5obve7XUC&dq=transcendental+wild+oats&source=gbs_navlinks_s
.

43
See Telfair Museum of Art. 2009.
Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880-1914
. University of Georgia Press.

44
For more details and additional references on this history, see “History of Urban Agriculture.”
Sprouts in the Sidewalk
http://sidewalksprouts.wordpress.com/history/
A recent detailed case study of one such past experiment is Sarah Moore. 2006. “Forgotten Roots of the Green City: Subsistence Gardening in Columbus, Ohio, 1900-1940.”
Urban Geography
27 (2): 174–192.

45
USDA. War Era Food Posters from the Collection of the National Agricultural Library
http://www.good-potato.com/beans_are_bullets/index.html
.

46
Charles Lathrop Pack. 1917. “Urban and Suburban Food Production”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
74: 203–206, p. 203.

47
Charles Lathrop Pack. 1919.
The Victorious Garden
, National War Garden Commission, p. 1
http://books.google.ca/books?id=fLMo180ErtYC&dq=editions:x7pJ7CT6nigC&source=gbs_navlinks_s
.

48
The Arthurdale Heritage website can be found at
http://www.arthurdaleheritage.org/
. A recent book on this failed experiment is C.J. Maloney. 2011.
Back to the Land: Arthurdale, FDR's New Deal, and the Costs of Economic Planning.
Wiley.

49
Morriss Llewellyn Cooke. 1918.
Our Cities Awake. Notes on Municipal Activities and Administration
. Doubleday, Page & Company, p. 269
http://www.archive.org/details/ourcitiesawakeno00cookrich
.

50
Morriss Llewellyn Cooke. 1918.
Our Cities Awake. Notes on Municipal Activities and Administration
. Doubleday, Page & Company, p. 269
http://www.archive.org/details/ourcitiesawakeno00cookrich
.

51
Anonymous. 1913. “Why Food is Dear. City Distribution Adds Usually 50 Per Cent. to Price Received by Farmers.”
New York Times
(July 13)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40F13FB3E5B13738DDDAA0994DF405B838DF1D3
.

52
Quoted by Joseph Russell Smith. 1919.
The World's Food Resources
. H. Holt & Company, p. 567
http://www.archive.org/details/worldsfoodresour00smituoft
.

53
Quoted in Oscar Diedrich von Engeln. 1920. “The World's Food Resources.”
Geographical Review
9 (3): 170–190, pp. 185–186.

54
Michael Pollan. 2008. “Farmer in Chief.”
New York Times Magazine
October 9
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html
.

55
Morriss Llewellyn Cooke. 1918.
Our Cities Awake. Notes on Municipal Activities and Administration
. Doubleday, Page & Company, pp. 269–270
http://www.archive.org/details/ourcitiesawakeno00cookrich
.

56
Morriss Llewellyn Cooke. 1918.
Our Cities Awake. Notes on Municipal Activities and Administration
. Doubleday, Page & Company, p. 270
http://www.archive.org/details/ourcitiesawakeno00cookrich
.

57
A. B. Ross. 1917. “The Point of Origin Plan for Marketing.”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences
74: 206–210, p. 206.

58
Idem, p. 207. The plan is also summarized in Joseph Russell Smith. 1919.
The World's Food Resources
. H. Holt & Company, pp. 567–571
http://www.archive.org/details/worldsfoodresour00smituoft
.

59
Joseph Russell Smith. 1917. “Price Control Through Industrial Organization.”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
74 (Special Thematic Issue: The World's Food): 280–287, p. 283.

60
Russell Smith, idem, pp. 285–286.

61
For a list of similar “local food” studies conducted in other locations between the First World War and the late 1920s, see Lorian P. Jefferson. 1926. “The Balance of Trade in Farm Products.”
Journal of Farm Economics
8 (4): 451–461 and Henry C. and Ann Dewees Taylor. 1952.
The Story of Agricultural Economics in the United States, 1840–1932
. Iowa State College Press. The context of such studies was a drastic decline in agricultural commodity prices in the 1920s.

62
See, among others, Michele VerPloeg et al. 2009.
Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food. Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences
. United States Department of Agriculture
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/ap/ap036/ap036.pdf
.

63
We will discuss a few of these broader policies in chapter 5, but not the European equivalents of Victory Gardens, such as the “Dig for Victory” campaign in the United Kingdom. A recent book on the latter topic is Twigs Way and Mike Brown. 2010.
Digging for Victory: Gardens and Gardening in Wartime Britain
. Sabrestorm Publishing
http://www.sabrestorm.com/digging.html
.

64
Frederic Clemson Howe. 1915.
The Modern City and Its Problems
. Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 5–6.

1
Plato. Around 360 BCE.
The Republic
, Book II
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.3.ii.html
.