TORONTO, ON (NEWS1130) – Everyone seems to be jumping on the local food bandwagon, but it may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu, the authors of the book The Locavore’s Dilemma, argue the movement is a recipe for economic and social disaster.

Maclean’s Associate Editor Tamsin McMahon examines the controversy in the latest issue of the magazine. She has found people tend to over-romanticize the 100 Mile Diet, adding there is a reason food production techniques have moved on since our grandparents time.

“It’s less expensive than it used to be, it’s more diverse, it’s fresher. We have great produce year round, whereas 100 years ago maybe you might have to only eat apples [at] certain times of the year…but now we can get them in January.”

The book warns if we were to actually grow all our own food locally, if we tried to grow our own food locally, it may lead to more harm than good.

“We’ll be having to build more greenhouses, we’ll be having to turn a lot of wild land and urban land back in agricultural land. That will be more difficult for the environment and will destroy a lot of sort of higher-paying city jobs and return us to subsistence farming.”