When is Local Not So Green?
Local Produce Not Green? This is a interesting topic that was researched by the University of Exeter out of England. The study that was published in Food Policy that the carbon emissions from a delivery truck are on average lower than making trips to your local farm. The researchers compared the amount of carbon emissions emitted between driving yourself and having organic produce delivered to you. They made sure to take into account CO2 emitted by all items involved in storing, packaging and transporting the items. In order for the trip to your local farm to make sense, it would have to be less than 4.16 miles ( 6.7km ). This is even under the condition that the farm selling the produce is not using any heating/cooling or lighting in their shop.
Is This Study Really Relevant?
After reading about this study a few times, I came to realize that the conditions mentioned are not really at all relevant to Americans. The average produce in American travels 1,500 miles and is not usually organically grown. Our food travels to far here for the trip to the farm or local market not make more sense. Also, I am not sure how the produce is in the UK, but the stuff you buy at your grocery store here is not anywhere as close to the quality at a local farm. Granted, organic produce from natural stores are often better than you normally would find at a normal grocery store. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) seems to me to be the optimum choice in terms of limiting the amount of carbon emissions, supporting your local community and buying fresh tasty produce. It allows you to buy local produce and have it delivered from the farm to a location closer to your house. If the study mentioned above is talking about CSA’s, then I am in total agree with the study.
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