I think the key here is that there's a difference between excessive transport of food and transport of food. What we have now is excessive transport of food with over-centralized production, resulting in a system that's incredibly dependent, in every way, on fossil fuels. Localism is an overly extreme backlash, but perhaps an extreme backlash is needed to reign in the insanity at the other end of the scale.

Ultimately, I suspect you'll be proven right. Bulk staples and other things that store well will be centrally produced using sustainable methods in places where it makes sense to do so, and shipped slowly to the places that need to consume them. Spices and other low-volume, low perishability items probably fall into the same category. What needs to stop is the central industrial production and long-distance high-speed transport of perishables - meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, dairy, etc.