The fuel transportation cost obsession

A great post today on the Freakonomics blog about how little fuel transportation costs factor into the production of food. Tellingly, however, the comment section lit up with locavores as if they were unleashed by a mad wizard.

The distance food was transported to your plate is a very poor yardstick to measure the amount of resources (including gasoline) that went into the food's production. It ignores all Ricardian specialization and presents a skewed result. It's like trying to judge the radiation level of an atomic bomb with a tablespoon.