The big picture

"Until recently it was assumed that organic farming was inherently sustainable. A recent report by the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs questions that, presenting evidence that there is little difference in energy use between "conventional" and organic agriculture.

Organic farming may use less energy in the form of factory-produced fertilisers and pesticides, but it still relies heavily on oil. Making organic agriculture less oil-dependent would require huge labour inputs and a return to 19th-century farming methods, which would not produce enough food for today's population.

Real change requires a complete reappraisal of the way food is produced and distributed. Supermarkets' centralised buying and distribution networks forestall any chance of a real move away from factory farming in the short term. Local initiatives like farmers' markets are making some impact, but they tend to be small-scale and intermittent.

One way to a more sustainable food economy would be to produce food on land that is closer to towns and cities. There has recently been a debate about using spaces in cities like Milton Keynes for growing food. This would drastically reduce the "food miles", yet without a local distribution and marketing system it would surely fail. Elsewhere roof gardens are used to produce fresh food very close to the point of consumption, such as the hydroponic food garden on Singapore's 800-bed Changi General Hospital."

This is Lebanon's asset: local food is really local. Most of the vegetables we consume everyday originate from a radius no larger than 5o km. However, in terms of monetary value, this is the smallest fraction. The bulk of our food bill goes on imported manufactured items, usually from the US, germany and france, but now increasingly from China. It is also known under the name "junk". The same applies to most countries. For local food systems to work, we must operate a major change in our food consumption habits.