I applaud the growing interest in lowering our carbon footprint by eating locally grown food.  It’s a good thing to avoid the greenhouse gas emissions caused by transporting food long distances.  In fact, the interest in eating locally is so widespread that a new word–’locavore’–has entered the lexicon, joining  ‘carnivore,’ herbivore,’ and ‘omnivore’ in describing how we eat.      

     While becoming a locavore is a good thing, reducing the environmental impact of one’s eating is more complicated.   According to a recent study, described in Science News (5/24/08), one can do much more to cut greenhouse gas emissions by eating less red meat and dairy than by eating locally-grown food. 

     Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh found that the greenhouse gas emissions associated with food delivery account for just 4% of food-associated greenhouse gas emissions, compared with 83% from food production. 

     Researchers Christopher Weber and H. Scott Matthews learned that greenhouse gas emissions caused by the production of red meat and dairy products, in particular, are far greater than the emissions caused by the delivery of foods to the consumer.  Further, their study showed that getting one-seventh of a week’s calories from chicken, fish or vegetables, instead of from red meat or dairy, reduces greenhouse gas emissions more than buying all local all the time.   

     The point is not that eating locally doesn’t matter.  The point, I believe, is that making an effort to reduce one’s consumption of meat and dairy products will do more to stop global warming than will making an effort to eat locally-grown food.  And doing both is better still.  Even if the greenhouse gas savings from eating locally are less than those associated with a low-meat, low-dairy diet, every earth-friendly shift helps. 

     Besides, when it comes to taste, what can beat a just-picked tomato or apple?  And foods eaten soon after harvesting retain more of their nutritional value than foods that have taken a long road trip!  Bon appetit!–April Moore

This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 8:22 am and is filed under Insights and Visions on the State of the Earth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.