Can eating locally, organically hurt the environment? New book says yes

At first blush, James E. McWilliams' new book Just Food could be taken as an attack on three movements; eating locally, fighting genetically modified crops, and using organic farming practices. He argues that these three could be responsible for more, not less, damage to the environment.

Heresy? Perhaps. However, the author is neither a knee-jerk conservative nor one who bases his conclusions on hearsay. Just Food is a carefully researched, thoughtful presentation about what happens when our preconceptions collide with valid research. But lest you think that McWilliams is a toady of the status quo, he also includes a scathing take on the land meat industry as an ecological and economic nightmare, while expressing a surprising amount of hope for aquaculture.