this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Cargo ships are financially efficient, sure. But in large part that's because the fuel it uses is subsidized by the rest of the oil industry (it's so cheap because it's a byproduct of producing oil that can't be used anywhere else) and it's incredibly toxic and polluting. International supply chains in general are both taxed and subsidized primarily for political reasons - economic or environmental efficiency or the lack thereof are byproducts of governments acting in their own interests to facilitate or limit trade. I really wouldn't point to any of that as a positive.
I get your point about transportation efficiencies and so forth. And yes, we need public transit, we need bicycles, we need denser housing and more efficient last step supply chains and generally to end personal ownership of automobiles because they're profoundly wasteful. That doesn't make eating locally bad, nor does it make the desire to shorten supply chains in general a bad aspiration.