Green Matters™
by Crissy Trask
Welcome to my blog where I share almost anything I think will help make greener living undeniable and simple. News, tips, insight and resources served up weekly. I also share my perspectives on others' perspectives and actions. Agree or disagree, I hope you will find them thought-provoking and a starting point for conversation.
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OCTOBER 27, 2009
Super Freakonomics authors come down hard on local food
"Food that's imported
from halfway across the world has a much smaller carbon footprint
than locally grown food." This
was the quote by Stephen Dubner, coauthor of Super Freakonomics,
during ABC's
20/20 last Friday night (air date: 10-24-09). Dubner and
his coauthor, Steven Levitt, apparently adopted this conclusion
after reading a study by two Carnegie Mellon researchers, Christopher
Weber and H. Scott Matthews, who found that 80 percent of the
emissions associated with food are in the production phase while
transportation represents only 11 percent of food emissions.
Unfortunately, it's quite a leap to go from this to "buying locally produced food actually increases
greenhouse-gas emissions." There is only one reason
our food system uses
so much energy in the production phase--large-scale,
industrial production that has little in common with the family-owned
farm associated with local food. The small-scale farmer selling
fresh produce and grass fed meat at your local farmers market
is responsible for a fraction of the fossil fuels consumed by
large agribusiness that relies on the production and supply of
fertilizers and pesticides and cheap energy at all stages of
food production.
The physical transport of food may comprise only 11 percent of its carbon footprint, but this shouldn't suggest that food miles don't matter. For one thing foods destined for a long, perhaps rough, journey must be harvested and prepared with this in mind--requiring more fossil fuels for quick mechanical harvesting, extra packaging and very likely cold storage or some form of processing. The 11 percent figure only captures transit, none of the energy-intensive methods and systems that must be employed to move food long distances from crop to table quickly and with the least damage to appearance and quality. When we accept high food miles, we also support energy-intensive steps that local food avoids.
I have no doubt that Weber's and Mathew's figures are legitimate, but using them to support an inconclusive, and ridiculous, statement like "buying locally produced food actually increases greenhouse-gas emissions" shows a real lack of knowledge on their part about the industrial food system and the sustainable food movement.
The local food movement is a viable way to reduce your food footprint, as long as "local" for you doesn't mean an industrial feedlot or chemically and mechanically dependent agribusiness that happens to be located in your county! Local food choices should support family-owned or co-oped farms practicing sustainable agriculture. For a list of local producers, visit localharvest.org.
2009 BLOG INDEX
Posts by Topic
Air Quality
6/8/09, Leaf Blowers:
An Environmental Nightmare
Cleaning
4/14/09, Don’t
Be So Quick to Blame the Low-Phosphate Detergent
Energy
7/6/09, It’s Summer
Time and the Livin’ is ‘Green’!
4/7/09, Window Films Can Lower Your
Cooling Bills and Your Tax Liability
3/14/09, Bundle Your
Gadgets
Food
10/27/09, Super
Freakonomics Authors Come Down Hard on Local Food
10/22/09, Hey Foodies, What
Are You Feeding Your Pets?
Green Terms
5/26/09, A Closer Look
at the Definition of “Recycled” and Some Other “Re”
Words
Plastic, and other Trash
7/13/09, Will a
Ban on Bottled Water Lad to Bad Beverage Choices?
4/22/09, Bottled Water
Gets Reinvented
3/2/09, Inefficient Packaging
Awards (No. 1)
Perspectives
9/14/09, Gullibility
is Derailing Progress
8/24/09, Check
Your Lifestyle Before Bragging About Recycling
8/19/09, Simple
Solutions Won’t Work Alone: Comprehensive is the True Agent
of Change
2/22/09, The Unhappiest Generation
2/12/09, Inauguration
Attendees Fail to Demonstrate Change
Reduce
8/5/09, Direct
Mail Marketers Want to Force Junk Mail on Us
3/21/09, Better
Yard Sales
1/25/09, Wasting Trees:
Why I Hate Junk Mail
Reuse
10/14/09, Wrapping
with Your Butcher
5/7/09, Craigslist
Buyers are A Flakey Bunch on the Whole
Recycling
6/22/09, Not
Separating Your Recyclables from Your Trash Can Hurt
3/4/09, Recycle Your
Water Filters
Transportation
6/15/09, Avoid
Hot Car Syndrome to Reduce Emissions…and Discomfort
Water
3/27/09,
Water, Water Everywhere, but Not a
Drop…
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