Dinopello,

The idea is that if you grow your food locally, you actually use significantly more energy/resources.

Plus that it makes you poorer.

I haven't seen any compelling proof of that, but I will not pass judgment on that aspect.

My point was that I eat better food by eating locally grown/raised food and I get to know the farmers and learn from them which is an added benefit. There are many meanings of being "poorer".

Well, the kind of poor we talk about here is the 'less money' kind of poor.

I see. Around here, we include happiness, friendship, education, security and health etc as important things you can be poor in as well.

Fair enough. But how about: not enough to eat?

You cannot expect the world to localize and still have enough to eat. That is a very unrealistic assumption.

So yes, I agree it is important to know your neighbor, but I would suggest it is slightly more important to eat.

As a token, be it incomplete, of proof: all present day localized societies are dirt poor.

At least, that's how we around here think about it.

Fair enough. But how about: not enough to eat?

That would be covered under "health" -LOL!

all present day localized societies are dirt poor.

Yes, this the the key -energy/climate cataclysm. Present day energy conditions are not like they were 100 years ago and beyond and present day conditions are about to undergo accelerating change. It's a matter of what systems are most robust under these changing conditions. Fortunately for me, the more robust arrangement of reasonably scaled systems (locally scaled in terms of just about everything - food, goods, retail, education, governance etc) yields what I consider a better quality of life as well due to what I value.