I find that our Canadian colleague Wayne Roberts can say it so well:

The local food discussion needs more content and edge. It can’t just be the distance between the farm and the supermarket. What if the used plastic has to go to China to be recycled, or if the pesticides have to be imported from Alberta?
…All of these factors mean that we need a space to continue discussing and developing pilot policies. As with many things in food, we don’t need a quick and forceful decision; we need discussion, pilots, and learning, and then good decisions that can grow with fairly widespread support.

I easily could have pulled out more quotes from this short interview, but I’ll let the writer get credit on the site. Needless to say, I heartily recommend that you buy Wayne’s book and follow his feeds such as on LinkedIn and look for him on all of the many social media and websites that he is found. I have my copy annotated already.