I often say that local and organic foods are more marketing ploys than foods which actually feed us. Most food that is grown, sold, and consumed in this country is neither locally-sourced nor organically-grown. I hope one day most food we eat will benefit from their standards, standards that promote health of people and the environment, standards with an eye towards humaneness, energy conservation, and sustainability. But it doesn’t look like that’s the current direction, at least regarding local:

Many things that are big consumer trends — such as local — don’t actually play out that way in the sales numbers.

For all the attention to local, more fruit is imported every year from far away. In other words, many of these movements are marketing initiatives more than practical supply chain changes.

What is also interesting is that in many cases, local farmer’s market, pick-your-own, home gardening etc., seem able to flourish without any impact on the sales through stores.

It is almost as if they are different industries. One is a type of food tourism, where you can enjoy the walk through the farmer’s market, and the other is the actual food provisions of the household.
–Perishible Pundit, 14 October 2018

We are not feeding ourselves with local and organic food. On the contrary, most of our plant food is conventionally grown, either here or abroad. Most of our animal food comes from factory farms. (“Factory farms raise 99.9% of chickens for meat, 97% of laying hens, 99% of turkeys, 95% of pigs, and 78% of cattle currently sold in the United States.“)

“Local” and “organic” are emblems of the overclass.