Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Do Local Foods Have a Smaller Carbon Footprint?
The answer is: it depends. Local food travels shorter distances
between farmers and consumers, and so these smaller num-
ber of “food-miles” can result in less carbon emissions, leading
some to believe that local food is better for the environment.
Fewer food-miles does not mean less fuel consumption, though.
A car with a hybrid engine may use less gas to cover 100 miles
than the same car with a nonhybrid engine covering only 75
miles, simply because the hybrid engine is more fuel-efficient.
Likewise, even if Kroger grocery stores must cover more miles
to deliver the same amount of lettuce to stores across the coun-
try (compared to a system where each store obtains lettuce from
local farms), they can better afford efficient trucks and are less
likely to send trucks partially loaded. The Economic Research
Service conducted case studies of various food distribution sys-
tems, and sometimes local foods resulted in less fuel per pound
of food shipped, and sometimes did not. In some cases, local
foods required fewer food-miles but resulted in higher fuel con-
sumption (per pound of food).
Imported food could even have fewer food-miles. Though
food may travel fewer miles from the farm to the farmers' mar-
ket, consumers must travel extra miles to patronize the farm-
ers' market in addition to the grocery store, and these extra
miles can result in a larger carbon footprint. Moreover, since
personal automobiles are relatively inefficient compared to
large tractor trailers, the best way to reduce carbon emissions
may be to transport food from many distant locations to one
grocery store, rather than have each shopper drive to many
different local food outlets.
If we truly care about our carbon footprint, we should be
concerned with carbon emissions observed at every stage of
food production, not just transportation. It would be absurd to
only care about pollution emitted during transportation of food
and show no concern for pollution at the stage of farm produc-
tion. Over 80 percent of all carbon emissions of food occur at
the farm and only 10 percent are emitted in transportation. By
