I have seen the present, and it works

I had a delightful surprise this weekend when I heard a locavore debate on the NPR's show Q with Jian Ghomeshi. And we won

Pierre Desrochers, co-author of The Locavore's Dilemma, was pitted against locavore activist Jill Richardson. It was a complete massacre.

As always, there was the hydra-like aspect of the "Buy Local" movement. When one one of their ideas is knocked down, they respond with two new, unrelated justifications for their position. What was interesting is that Richardson actually distanced herself from some of the major local purchasing arguments, such as food miles.

The highlight of the 20 minute conversation was when Desrochers made a comeback to Richardson that drew laughter from the NPR crew. She started by saying:

When my California strawberry gets to you in Toronto it will not test very good... What I would do, and I did do when I lived in Wisconsin is eat the best, most delicious sweetest ripe strawberriess for about one month a year. I would buy a lot, I would can them, make jam... freeze them... and that was it for strawberries for the year. But, later in the year I would eat what was ripe then and what tasted good then instead.

To which Desrochers responded:

But then we might as well import strawberry jam.

Swish.

I learned some great new arguments from Desrochers, and when I read the book I expect to find many more.