By Carla Medlenka
Cantaloupe from Costa Rica, tomatoes from Canada. Have you ever noticed where your food is grown and wondered how far it travels to your table?
Take last night’s dinner as an example. If you had a Big Mac attack and drove through McDonald’s for your meal, it’s likely that your beef came from cattle raised in South America. If you ate a pear, it may have come from Argentina, your fish from the Indian Ocean, baby carrots from South Africa, sugar snap peas from Guatemala, asparagus from Peru, red wine from Chile, shrimp from Indonesia, or chicken from Thailand. The typical American meal contains, on average, ingredients from at least five countries outside the United States and travels 1500-2000 miles before it hits your plate. That’s a further distance than many of us travel on vacation!
Today retailers can source food from wherever it is cheapest around the globe at the touch of a computer key. To meet this demand, our food is transported further than ever before, often by air and trucks. This travel distance creates a huge environmental impact, makes our food a major contributor to greenhouse emissions, and also means a heavy dependence on a resource that is not only finite but also highly politically charged: oil.
The vast majority of energy used in the U.S. food system (around 80 percent) goes to processing, packaging, transporting, storing, and preparing food. Local food systems can reduce "food miles" and transportation costs, offering significant energy savings. When we choose local food, we also benefit from fresher, better-tasting, and more nutritious food, and help more food dollars stay within our communities.
In addition to all this, fresh locally grown food tastes so much better than stuff that’s been traveling around for days or weeks. And growers can plant better-tasting varieties if their fruits and vegetables won’t need to stand up to long-distance shipping.
Despite the appearance of near perfection in imported fresh fruit and vegetables, new research has found that the further they have traveled, the more their vitamin and mineral content deteriorates. Buying fresh local food is the easiest way to avoid eating processed food with added sugar, fat and preservatives.
It’s time for each of us to become proactive in choosing where our food comes from and its environmental impact. It’s very simple.
Start small with these steps:
- Check the labels. Most food at the grocery store displays a country of origin. Why buy tomatoes trucked all the way from Canada when you can choose those grown in San Antonio, Texas? Talk with the produce manager about offering more locally grown fruits and vegetables in their store. They will listen if enough requests are made.
- Visit farmers markets and roadside farm stands. Ask questions about where the food is grown. (See sidebar for some location listings in Houston and the Bay Area.)
- Join CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), a member-supported farm in which shares are paid back to members in weekly deliveries of fresh produce, flowers, eggs and dairy products. The number of CSAs in the United States was estimated at 50 in 1990, and has since grown to over 1000. In the Houston area, visit localharvest.org.
- Green up your thumb. The most local food of all comes from your own garden. Plant a small garden, enlarge the one you already have, or connect with a community garden. Locate a garden near you at communitygarden.org. No time or space for digging in the dirt? Check out “EarthBox” on page 48.
- Log your food miles. Make it a family game to figure out your meal mileage each evening and set some goals for reducing those miles. Invite your children to participate. The game may inspire them to make better food choices.
Food Facts
Most food in the United States travels between 1,500 and 2,000 miles before being eaten.
— Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University
Behind each calorie of food in the typical American diet stands seven to ten calories of fossil fuel energy.
— University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems
The food industry uses about a fifth of the oil consumed in the United States.
— University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems
In the United States, agricultural imports are rising twice as fast as exports. Over the past two decades, imports of fruits, vegetables and grains increased by more than 100 percent.
— U.S. Department of Agriculture
Here’s the breakdown of food’s fossil fuel consumption:
20 percent consumed on the farm; 40 percent burned up in processing, packaging and shipping; another 40 percent is used to store and prepare the food.
— Chad Heeter, “My Saudi Arabian Breakfast”
Nonlocal food often is less nutritious. For example, bagged spinach loses about half its folate and carotenoidsafter being stored in refrigeration for just four days.
— Journal of Food Science
The average American farmer receives about 20 cents of every dollar spent on food. But when customers buy directly from the farm, the farmer gets the whole dollar.
— John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri
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There are several local farmers markets that feature (rain or shine) a large variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, herbs, grass fed beef and other meats, pastured eggs, homemade breads and sweets, local honey, milks and cheeses, and handmade products.
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NASSAU BAY FARMERS MARKET
Every Saturday – 10:00am to 2:00pm
Erma’s Nutrition Center
18045 Upper Bay Road
Nassau Bay TX 77058
ermasnutritioncenter.com
HOUSTON FARMERS MARKET
Saturdays – 8am to noon in the Heights
3106 White Oak between Studewood and Heights Blvd
Tuesdays – 3:30pm to 7:00pm on Rice University Campus
University Blvd. near Montclair
houstonfarmersmarket.com
MIDTOWN HOUSTON FARMERS MARKET
Saturdays – 8:00am to noon at Monica Pope’s acclaimed restaurant, t’afia.
3701 Travis Street, Houston
localharvest.org/farmers-markets
BAYOU CITY FARMERS MARKET
Wednesdays - 4:00pm to 7:00pm
Saturdays – 8:00am to noon
3000 Richmond Avenue, between Kirby and Buffalo Speedway
(Close to Greenway Plaza)
urbanharvest.org
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