 The concept of buying local is
simply to buy food (or any good or service) produced, grown, or
raised as close to your home as possible. With
industrialization, our food is now grown and processed in fewer
and fewer locations, meaning it has to travel further to reach
the average consumer’s refrigerator. Although this method
of production is considered efficient and economically
profitable for large agribusiness
corporations, it is harmful to the environment,
consumers and rural communities.
Food Miles, Resources and
the Environment
"Food miles" refer to the distance a food item travels
from the farm to your home. The food miles for items you buy in
the grocery store tend to be 27 times higher than the food miles
for goods bought from local sources.i
In the U.S., the average grocery store’s produce
travels nearly 1,500 miles between the farm where it was grown
and your refrigerator.ii About 40% of our fruit is
produced overseas and, even though broccoli is likely grown
within 20 miles of the average American’s house, the
broccoli we buy at the supermarket travels an average 1,800
miles to get there. Notably, 9% of our red meat comes from
foreign countries, including locations as far away as Australia
and New Zealand.iii
So how does our food travel from farm field to grocery
store? It’s trucked across the country, hauled in
freighter ships over oceans, and flown around the world.
A tremendous amount of fossil
fuel is used to transport foods such long distances. Combustion
of these fuels releases carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide,
particulate matter and other pollutants into the atmosphere,
contributing to global climate change, acid rain, smog and air
pollution. Even the refrigeration required to keep your fruits,
vegetables, dairy products and meats from spoiling burns up
energy.
Food processors also use a large amount of paper and
plastic packaging to keep food fresh (or at least looking fresh)
for a longer period of time. This packaging eventually becomes
waste that is difficult, if not impossible, to reuse or recycle.
Aside from the environmental harm that can result from
processing, packaging and transporting long-distance foods, the
industrial farms on which these foods are often produced are
major sources of air and water pollution. Small, local
farms tend to be run by farmers who live on their land and work
hard to preserve it. Buying local means you can talk directly to
the farmer growing your food and find out what they do and how
they do it. Do they grow their food organically? If they're not
certified organic, ask them why. Many
small farms, even if they haven't taken the certification step,
still utilize sustainable or organic farming methods that help
protect the air, soil and water.
Health and Nutrition
 Buying food from
local farms means getting food when it’s at its prime.
Fresh food from local farms is healthier than
industrially-farmed products because the food doesn’t
spend days in trucks and on store shelves losing nutrients.v
Food transported short distances is fresher (and,
therefore, safer) than food that travels long distances. Local
food has less of an opportunity to wilt and rot whereas
large-scale food manufacturers must go to extreme lengths to
extend shelf-life since there is such a delay between harvest
and consumption. Preservatives are
commonly used to keep foods stable longer, and are potentially
hazardous to human health. Industrially-produced foods are also
difficult to grow without pesticides, chemical fertilizers,
antibiotics and growth hormones, all of which can be damaging to
both the environment and human health.
Local foods from small farms usually undergo minimal
processing, are produced in relatively small quantities, and are
distributed within a few dozen miles of where they originate.
Food produced on industrial farms, however, is distributed
throughout the country and world, creating the potential for
disease-carrying food from a single factory farm to spread
rapidly throughout the entire country. The 2006 E coli outbreak
is a good example of this, as contaminated spinach from a single
region in California managed to sicken people in 26 states.vi
Products such as ground beef, which is pooled from
hundreds of different animals, are of particular concern. The
meat from a single diseased cow could end up contaminating
hundreds of pounds of food distributed to thousands of people.
Once such a product is on shelves, it is very difficult to
determine where the contaminated meat came from. Preventing or
controlling disease outbreaks in such a system is nearly
impossible.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the
federal agency which inspects meat and poultry, does not have
the authority to order a recall of dangerous or mislabled
product once it has left a plant. The agency can only urge the
company to issue a recall themselves. This often leads to delays
in notifying the public, wasting valuable time and increasing
the odds that unsafe products get eaten by consumers.
Family Farms and
Community
According to the USDA, the U.S. has lost over five million farms
since 1935.vii Family
farms are going out of business at break-neck speed, causing
rural communities to deteriorate. The
U.S. loses two acres of farmland each minute as cities and
suburbs spread into the surrounding communities.viii
By supporting local farms near suburban areas and around cities,
you help keep farmers on the land, and, at the same time,
preserve open spaces and counteract urban sprawl.
What You Can Do
Join the growing movement of consumers around the world who are
making a little extra effort to find food raised nearby.
- Check out our Eat Seasonal page to find
when foods are in season in your area.
- Buy food directly from your local
farmer at a farm stand or a farmers market. Or join a CSA group and get a farm share.
- Encourage your local grocery store
to stock food from local farmers.
- Visit our Shopping Guide section for CSAs,
farmers markets and other sustainable outlets.
- Join the 100-mile
diet movement.
Did You Know?
- The majority of the money spent on
grocery-store food goes to suppliers, processors, middlemen and
marketers. Only 3.5 cents of each dollar actually goes to the
farmer.ix If you buy food from a farmers market or
farm stand, you can be sure that most, if not all, of your
money is going directly to the farmer.
Hand in hand with buying local is eating seasonal. Find
out what foods are in season in your area. |
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- Communities reap more economic
benefits from the presence of small farms than they do from
large ones. Studies have shown that small farms re-invest more
money into local economies by
purchasing feed, seed and other materials from local
businesses,x whereas large farms often order in bulk
from distant companies. Large factory livestock farms also
bring down local property values with the intense odors they
emit.xi
- A typical carrot has to travel 1,838
miles to reach your dinner table.xii
- In the U.S., a wheat farmer can
expect to receive about six cents of each dollar spent on a
loaf of bread—approximately the cost of the wrapping.xiii
- Farmers markets enable farmers to
keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.xiv
- About 1/3 of all U.S. farms are
located within metropolitan areas, comprising 18% of the total
U.S. farmland.xv
For More Information
- Food
Routes' Buy Local Campaign includes information on the benefits
of buying locally and offers resources for promoting local food
production.
- Visit the Locavores
website to get tips on eating food grown within 100 miles of
your home.
- Watch the Harvest
Eating video podcast to learn about shopping and eating
seasonally.
Reports and Articles
Sources
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