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>Canada's most prominent food related export is Maple Syrup Canada exports ~$200mm worth of maple syrup a year, and $5bn worth of wheat. Similarly, seals were

• ars 9y ago
  You are nitpicking on irrelevant details. Partly my fault, I admit, since I added those details to try to make my point. Can I ask you to redirect to the actual topic of: Is preferring to eat local good or bad for the environment? > Canada is a net exporter of food and food products Good. So there are things that grow well there. It doesn't really have any bearing on my point. > You seem to be getting your facts from the book of lazy stereotypes. Do you think we also ride moose or polar bears to work instead of driving cars? This is really unnecessary, and derails conversations.
  • astrodust 9y ago
    The growing season may be shorter in parts of Canada than in, say, Florida, but that doesn't mean it limits produce to a handful of things. Pick any major city in Canada and you can get local, fresh berries when they're in season, lettuce, squash, beans, corn, wheat, any of the usual staples. It's only when you go above the Arctic Circle that your options get more constrained. Just because the growing season is shorter doesn't mean it's not possible to farm. You just need to pick appropriate crops and be more selective about their varieties. An example of this is Winter Wheat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_wheat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_wheat) which is a specific variety of wheat that grows much better in the northern praries. There's a lot of other crops like this with hardier, more durable varieties that have been adapted over decades by farmers. Fruits and vegetables of all kinds do just fine with the right choices and careful attention. You won't get local avocado, bananas or oranges, but the same holds true for about a quarter of the continental US, states in a row from Washington over to Maine. Instead there's apples, strawberries, blueberries, peaches and apricots. There's also a wide variety of livestock that don't have any trouble with the winter weather or can be housed indoors, from chickens to cows to goats to ostrich and emu if you prefer. There's also vast amounts of land for ranches in the western part of the country. I don't know what your point is other than blathering on about total nonsense regarding maple syrup and seals. (Honestly, the biggest single export from Canada is probably marijuana. In many cases it eclipses lumber in terms of revenues.)
    • ars 9y ago
      Sigh. Please! Think, don't just react. I'm not criticizing Canada!! > when they're in season, lettuce, squash, beans, corn, wheat, any of the usual staples. What do you eat the rest of the year? That's the question. It's not a question on the ability of Canada to grow food. If you only ate local, you are extremely constrained in what you can eat because things are only in season for a short time. An additional question is: Where is the best place to grow a particular food? For example, you mentioned Winter Wheat. Perfect! Grow that, and livestock, in Canada, and don't grow Wheat in Florida. Instead Ship Food! Let Florida grow oranges, and Canada grow Wheat, then trade, and get rid of this "local" nonsense. > I don't know what your point is other than blathering on about total nonsense regarding maple syrup and seals. Do you understand my point now? Or do you still think I'm somehow criticizing Canada? By growing food in the best place for it you can save a ton of energy and fertilizer. Eat local is bad for the environment because it uses more resources, and because it forces people to have restricted diets.
      • tonyarkles 9y ago
        I'm trying to be as generous as possible here. I think what you're saying is that only eating local in Canada would be inefficient, compared to importing/exporting. And you're right, to a certain extent. We wouldn't have oranges or avocados, unless they were grown inefficiently. We would have to change our diets. The point you're missing though, I think, is that pretty much any region that had a significant population before industrialization is able to grow and eat a reasonably well-balanced diet locally. Would I miss avocados and oranges? Definitely. Would it mean that I'd be incapable of eating a nutritious diet? Absolutely not. > What do you eat the rest of the year? Well, lots of vegetables will last a long time in a "cold room". This is an uninsulated room in the basement that usually hovers just above freezing point. Meat can be frozen, or preserved, or butchered as needed. Grains and legumes keep a long time (wheat, lentils, peas, etc). Dairy farms run all-year-round. Around here, many people produce significantly more fruit than they could eat before it spoils; the solution is generally to freeze it or can it. At my house, we keep the deep freeze outside, so keeping frozen food is pretty much zero cost for a significant portion of the year. I dunno dude, while my diet would be a little less interesting, eating entirely local would be quite plausible in the Canadian prairies. There's things I'd miss, but it wouldn't be nutrients. [...but you can pry avocados out of my cold dead hands]