Planes, trains, and automobiles. Bananas, beef, tomatoes, and lemons. Food has become part of the global trade system, with produce, frozen meals, and meat in grocery stores labeled with different country and state origins. Grocery stores have become the hub of globalization, with foods representative of nations all across the globe: on average, there are more than five countries represented on American plates. As global warming threats become ever more present in the media, conversations about food transportation have coined a new term…
Food miles
The term ‘food miles’ encompasses the distance food travels from growth to consumption, from soil to plate. Over time, food transport has increased significantly: instead of using seasonal ingredients to craft homemade recipes, we have become comfortable eating produce that is neither grown locally nor produced in season. It is estimated that on average an American meal travels around 1,500 miles from growth to plate. These miles are monumental and remove the local farmers from the food production picture. Large multinational corporations are increasingly reliant on imports and exports.
Food production is directly linked to carbon emissions and changes in the environment; while industrial agriculture and mass transit of produce is efficient, it yields high amounts of greenhouse gases: in California alone, over 250,000 tons of greenhouse gases are distributed into the atmosphere every year due to importing food products.
Eating Local
Recently there has been a movement to buy local, with an emphasis on the one-hundred-mile diet. Eating local food creates a reduction in greenhouse gases, transportation, and fuel consumption while increasing the freshness, taste and nutritional value of produce. A reduction in food miles has the potential to decrease greenhouse gases while increasing quality of ingredients on the user end.
Meanwhile, local food is a positive influence on self-reliance for local economies: many of the international foods that we consume can be grown right here in the US, but aren’t due to cheaper labor and processing costs abroad. With food trade continuing to increase, thinking about food miles is an important part of a buyer’s decision when purchasing produce; local economies can be stimulated and supported through the reduction of food miles. The ways in which food travels may seem trivial, but these shifts in production methods are a significant piece of a wider picture.
Next time you sit down to eat a meal, count the countries represented on the plate. Think about how far the lettuce traveled to end up as the base for your salad. It is time to shift back to local food; reducing food miles starts with you, and it is as simple as beginning to grow food in your own home.