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Comment by laurentl | Hacker News Reader

What’s most striking in this article is the disconnect between the gravity of the situation and the ecological impact of “economically efficient” local solutions such as flying in workers from Thailand and lettuce from L.A.

Seriously, flying in 30000 heads of lettuce from half the world away to honor a contract with a supermarket? I can understand that it’s the “right” local solution (most likely the only way to avoid bankruptcy for the farmers), but from a global perspective this is utterly crazy.

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Do you think bananas sold in Europe are grown locally?

Compared to all the stuff flown around, one extra shipment is a drop in the bucket.

Greece produces bananas. (source : https://en.actualitix.com/country/wld/banana-producing-count... page 10)

Iceland used to produce bananas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_production_in_Iceland

https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/bananas_en:

European citizens are major banana consumers, making the European Union (EU) the world’s biggest importer of bananas from Latin America (nearly 70%) and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries (around 19%). The EU's own production of bananas amounts to around 11%.

Yes, and to add to that a vast majority of this 11% is grown at quite a distance from the continent:

Of the total banana volume marketed in Europe, which amounted to 6,122,898 tonnes, 11.3% is of EU origin, with the Canary Islands accounting for more than 60%, followed by the French Martinique and Guadeloupe (36%) and by the Portuguese Madeira (3%).

Bananas are picked green and have a long shelf life if stored correctly. They are transported by sea. Lettuce has to be transported by air. Importing lettuce is more harmful.

I’m well aware of what produce is grown locally; I live in France and try to purchase local, seasonal fruits and vegetables as far as possible. But that’s just my point: we’ve grown used to this type of behavior, to the point that it’s become normal to fly lettuce around the world. Just another drop in the bucket as you say, but the article makes depressingly clear the fact that the bucket is overflowing.

But I like lettuce.

Too bad. the environmentalists know better than you and lettuce is killing the planet.

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