Eating locally vs. world peace

[u/BX8061]

It seems to me that there are a lot of social and environmental benefits to eating locally. However, I've heard it said that the massive interconnection of trade that defines the last century has been hugely instrumental in the decrease in the amount of wars. Do any of you have any thoughts on this?

[u/Ticklishchap]

What decrease in the number of wars? I haven’t noticed it. … There are many underreported conflicts, for example: West Papua; Western Sahara; Sudan; DR Congo; Central African Republic; Cabo Delgado (Mozambique); Eastern Myanmar …

… But I agree with you that eating locally and shopping locally has environmental benefits and contributes to a stronger sense of community.

[u/OttoVonDisraeli → u/Ticklishchap]

It doesn't just have an environment impact, it is one of the greatest environmental acts you can make to drop your ecological footprint across time!

[u/BX8061 → u/Ticklishchap]

This is true, of course, but you must admit that something is behind the relative lack of war in Europe since WWII.

[u/Ticklishchap → u/BX8061]

A lot of this was down to the Cold War, which in reality maintained a kind of stasis or ‘Cold Peace’ in Europe, with multiple proxy wars elsewhere. Following the end of the Cold War, we have had Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and now of course Ukraine.

[u/ToryPirate]

One of the big arguments behind globalization is that economies widely dependent on each other prevents the kind of destructive wars we saw in the past as it ruins the aggressor's country to a greater extent than the benefits gained from a successful invasion. Is this true? Depends. For democracies it probably holds true as even populations mostly behind a war don't want to feel any actual economic effects from it. Would the Iran War be as unpopular if gas prices weren't surging? Probably not. But its a bit hit or miss when it comes to dictatorships as they have less of a need to keep the people happy. Also, sometimes irredentist sentiment overwhelms pure economic arguments.

As for food; living in a cold climate makes eating local at all times an impossibility. That said, certain rules make it harder to eat locally. As I mentioned recently, some smaller grocery stores are locked in to having a certain percentage of their food coming from larger grocery chains (say 80%). Likewise, finding a properly certified kitchen to make food to sell in grocery stores can be a challenge in some places. Without these rules (or at least greater support for smaller sellers to break into the market) they could have more local foods.

[u/OttoVonDisraeli]

I would be very curious to see or hear the argument about how global supplychains for food production and distribution decreases war.

There's a logic I can follow about how increasing our connectedness and dependence means countries have more incentive not to be in open conflict but there are so many other variables at play beyond to point at food and say...because my bananas were grown for pennies in the Global South, we have world peace.

[u/BX8061 → u/OttoVonDisraeli]

It's not just food, it's global supply chains in general. The idea is that especially between wealthy nations, the existence of strong trade ties disincentivises them from warring with each other.

[u/OttoVonDisraeli → u/BX8061]

It may be a major factor in Europe, but there are many factors at play beyond just international trade (such as nuclear detente amongst great powers) and it is certainly the case that war is still very much waged in parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Eastern Europe.

Decolonization reduced for a time the amount of war in the Global South but the arbitrary lines drawn as borders in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East are certainly themselves the origin of some continued displacement and war even today.