Living Green by Amy Hackney Blackwell

Author:Amy Hackney Blackwell [Amy Hackney Blackwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO

29. Is local food really greener than food from far away?

The food that we eat is often grown very far away from where we eat it. Take a look at the stickers on the fruit in your local grocery store. You will see apples from Chile, bananas from Nicaragua, and tomatoes from Canada. Packaged foods come from factories across the country. That food travels on trucks, trains, ships, and airplanes that crisscross the country and the globe.

Experts have estimated that in the United States, food travels an average of 1,500 miles to reach consumers. A researcher in 2005 found that the ingredients in a carton of strawberry yogurt—milk, sugar, strawberries—traveled over 2,200 miles just to get to the processing plant to be made into yogurt, which still had to be shipped out to stores and consumers. This obviously has to involve costs—money, environmental degradation, and carbon emissions—which has led many to embrace the local food movement.

Local food, farmers’ markets, and farm-to-table movements are very popular today. People like the idea of buying food that was raised close to home, and they want to support local farmers. People who eat locally even give themselves a fancy name: “locavores.”

Local food in this context is generally considered to originate no more than 100 miles from its point of sale. This is an informal definition, but it generally encompasses an area within easy driving distance. Farmers can pick their produce in the morning and have it in the market by the afternoon.

There are some clear benefits to eating locally. Eating local food usually produces fewer carbon emissions than food that comes from far away. Local food comes from local farmers, often working on a smaller scale than industrial farms, which helps create jobs and preserve farming knowledge. Local farmers often use organic practices, which increase biodiversity and limit harm to the environment. Local farms can produce a more interesting variety of foods than grocery stores. The food is fresher, so there is not as much pressure to sell only varieties that will transport easily.

On the other hand, not every region can produce every type of food year-round. Plants grow only during certain seasons and only in areas with enough sunlight and water. Locavores strive to eat seasonally, consuming only what is available at any given time of year—so no fresh tomatoes or blackberries in January. In regions with long winters, the nongrowing season can be bleak.

The damage caused by transportation is not always perfectly clear-cut. For example, trains produce fewer carbon emissions than trucks, so potatoes that travel 1,000 miles by rail result in the same amount of greenhouse gas emission as potatoes that travel 100 miles by truck. There are other factors to consider. A greenhouse in Maine might be able to produce tasty tomatoes in the winter, but because that greenhouse requires fossil fuels for heating, the carbon footprint of tomatoes transported from Mexico might be smaller. A 2007 study found that growing roses in Kenya and transporting them to England actually

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