Food Miles is a Crock

[Pebs]

There was a recent article in I believe Newsweek, that gave some interesting information on how seriously the Locavore Movement is becoming. It sited among other things that Wal-Mart, Target and several other large retail grocery providers were seeking ways to buy food produced closer to the stores it's destine for. They are actually starting to change their distribution models. I have to believe it's based on cost, not some new sense of morality about the environment. According to the article it has to do with the cost of fuel. I think it's safe to argue that regarless of the fact that it's totally monitarily based for these companies, the less fuel we burn, the smaller the carbon foot print. They are going green in some ways in spite of themselves. They are clearly looking at ways to reduce food miles.

On another note, I live in a normal home on a standard lot in a small city of 3,600 people. In my backyard I grow three kinds of potatoes 8 types of tomatoes, 6 different lettuce varieties, fennel, spinach, 3 varieties of beets, 4 varieties of beans, snap peas, rubarb, asparagus, raspberries, 3 varieties of eggplant, and about 6 varieties of peppers. And lots of herbs. Because I mulch and compost, I don't really need to water all that much. I grow most things from seed. I do buy some plant starts, but this year I made most of my purchases from a farmers market.

As to how efficient it is, I think you have to put that in perspective in part based on how valuable what you grow is to you. I agree with the arguments that not everything is efficient to grow in every region. But another aspect of it for me is that I would have to trave 165 miles one way to a major city ( Chicago ) to purchase the variety of things I am growing in my own yard. In some cases, I couldn't get some of it even there. So how valuable is that to someone who enjoys the richness of variety that mother nature affords us? Very valuable. It doesn't make me a yuppy. Far from it. I can or freeze what I can't eat immediately which allows me to eat great stuff I'd have to pay as much as $11 a jar for in a gourmet shop. I'd venture to say it makes me cheap in a rich sort of way.

[slkinsey]

Interesting. But here is another portion of the equation that a lot of people don't consider: How much extra greenhouse gas are you creating by living in your single-family dwelling and driving a car around compared to, say, living in the city and taking the subway everywhere you go like people in NYC do?

Looking at this strictly from a GHG standpoint, it's still not clear to me that it isn't better to live in a densely populated city with public transportation and eat non-local foods than it is to live in a low-density car-culture city either eating locally or growing your own. Again, this is only looking at it from a purely GHG standpoint...

[Pebs]

Interesting.  But here is another portion of the equation that a lot of people don't consider:  How much extra greenhouse gas are you creating by living in your single-family dwelling and driving a car around compared to, say, living in the city and taking the subway everywhere you go like people in NYC do?

Looking at this strictly from a GHG standpoint, it's still not clear to me that it isn't better to live in a densely populated city with public transportation and eat non-local foods than it is to live in a low-density car-culture city either eating locally or growing your own.  Again, this is only looking at it from a purely GHG standpoint...

←

Actually, I'm one of those fortunate people who can walk to work, which I try to do most times, unless the weather is bad. When it was really bad this winter the Police Chief picked me up and drove me to work at City Hall. The ultimate in public transportation. I walk to most places I'm invited to. I can walk to 38 restaurants. Imagine that, in the country even. I drive to the grocery store, because the way back is uphill about a mile and a quarter and I'm 50. I'm thrifty but not stupid. And yes, I do buy non local foods too. Especially out of season and the obvious citrus not available locally in the midwest. But I really enjoy the local stuff, including the locally raised venison, and the cage free eggs I get from the city hall cleaning lady put on my desk once a week for $1 a dozen. We don't have cabs. And my house isn't all that large. I don't even have air conditioning. It was well built for natural ventilation in the 1840s. It was all they had back then. I feel very blessed to have this life style. I didn't move here out of some yuppy gone hippy fit of environmental rage. I got a good job here and it's a beautiful place to live.

I lived in New York City for years and can tell you that I'm probably using less energy now than I did living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in a 60 unit building taking the elevator up and down and taking the subway to work. Then going up to the 102nd floor of Two World Trade Center, three times a day and spending 9 to 12 hours a day in a 24/7 airconditioned or heated building 107 stories high. And cabbing it everywhere else. If you're in a cab, it's just someone elses car isn't it? I'm certainly not saying that everyone who lives in a major city is inefficient. Not at all. I wish more cities were like NY in that there are small grocery stores in each neighborhood and you can walk to many things. But neither should you assume that anyone living in a single family dwelling in a small town has 5 acres of land, lives in a McMansion and drives an SUV 150,000 miles a year to go to dinner and work. I put about 10,000 miles a year on my old Ford Taurus.

I know I'm not going to change the world with my vegetable garden. I'm just changing my world.

[Mallet]

That's what I'm saying.  There can be plenty of benefits to eating locally, but food miles seems to be a silly justification.  It's also possible that, even accounting for all the benefits of your locally-raised grass-fed beef, that you would to better for the environment by giving up any kind of beef alltogether but continuing to eat non-local citrus fruits.

←

I agree with the first point, but I think the Original Post frames the question misleadingly. The original concept of food miles was:

to highlight the hidden ecological, social and economic consequences of food production to consumers in a simple way, one which had objective reality but also connotations. [emphasis mine]

link

so I think the focus on one slice of transportation impacts as the sole gauge of the entire food mile concept is a bit uncharitable.

As to your second point, I think that's best left for another thread (my initial feeling is that this is doubtful, if not from an immediate emissions perspective then perhaps from a broader sustainability standpoint: I would think that animals are a key component of sustainable farming) ...

[MarketStEl]

Interesting.  But here is another portion of the equation that a lot of people don't consider:  How much extra greenhouse gas are you creating by living in your single-family dwelling and driving a car around compared to, say, living in the city and taking the subway everywhere you go like people in NYC do?

Looking at this strictly from a GHG standpoint, it's still not clear to me that it isn't better to live in a densely populated city with public transportation and eat non-local foods than it is to live in a low-density car-culture city either eating locally or growing your own.  Again, this is only looking at it from a purely GHG standpoint...

←

Actually, I'm one of those fortunate people who can walk to work, which I try to do most times, unless the weather is bad. When it was really bad this winter the Police Chief picked me up and drove me to work at City Hall. The ultimate in public transportation. I walk to most places I'm invited to. I can walk to 38 restaurants. Imagine that, in the country even. I drive to the grocery store, because the way back is uphill about a mile and a quarter and I'm 50. I'm thrifty but not stupid. And yes, I do buy non local foods too. Especially out of season and the obvious citrus not available locally in the midwest. But I really enjoy the local stuff, including the locally raised venison, and the cage free eggs I get from the city hall cleaning lady put on my desk once a week for $1 a dozen. We don't have cabs. And my house isn't all that large. I don't even have air conditioning. It was well built for natural ventilation in the 1840s. It was all they had back then. I feel very blessed to have this life style. I didn't move here out of some yuppy gone hippy fit of environmental rage. I got a good job here and it's a beautiful place to live.

I lived in New York City for years and can tell you that I'm probably using less energy now than I did living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in a 60 unit building taking the elevator up and down and taking the subway to work. Then going up to the 102nd floor of Two World Trade Center, three times a day and spending 9 to 12 hours a day in a 24/7 airconditioned or heated building 107 stories high. And cabbing it everywhere else. If you're in a cab, it's just someone elses car isn't it? I'm certainly not saying that everyone who lives in a major city is inefficient. Not at all. I wish more cities were like NY in that there are small grocery stores in each neighborhood and you can walk to many things. But neither should you assume that anyone living in a single family dwelling in a small town has 5 acres of land, lives in a McMansion and drives an SUV 150,000 miles a year to go to dinner and work. I put about 10,000 miles a year on my old Ford Taurus.

I know I'm not going to change the world with my vegetable garden. I'm just changing my world.

←

I was going to say something to the effect that small towns full of single-family residences with yards are different animals entirely from suburbs of the same type, because they are geographically more compact and combine residential and commercial uses in such a way that many residents have the choice of not driving to work or for errands, and those yards are often used as something other than ornamental lawns...

...but Pebs beat me to it. I'll wager, as she does, that her carbon footprint is actually smaller than the Manhattan straphanger's.

[robyn]

There are so many important issues not mentioned in this thread that it's hard to cover them. Want to grow a garden where I live? Great. Except we have water rationing - and it is considered unacceptable to use any kind of fertilizing agents or certain pesticides within X feet of wetlands (and many people - including me - live on the edge of wetlands). So do I cheat on the water and fertilizer and pesticide rules - or drive 2 miles to the grocery store?

It is easy for city/country north/south people to fight about energy use. Yup - a lot of people in non-urban areas - especially in the southern part of the country - drive large distances and use large amounts of gas to do so. But people up north tend to live in harsh winter climates in frequently older not-so-well-insulated houses which need a lot of oil for winter heating. I've read some pretty terrible stories about this coming winter up north - where people with houses smaller than mine will spend more just for heating oil than I spend all year for all the energy I use in my house.

In terms of being a "locavore" - my area is probably typical of most. A few crops - not much diversity - due to climate conditions - soil conditions - etc. I would not want to survive on what is grown within 200 miles of where I live.

My point is that we're all in this together. There is no best way to live - we can't all live in the same place and in the same way - and we should all recognize that beating up on one another is not a reasonable way to solve energy and environmental problems- or to eat better in a more sustainable way either. Robyn