Virtue by the Gallon

Hey Mr. Green,
There is an excellent farmers' market 12 miles from our house and a supermarket just 1.5 miles away. Does the 24-mile drive to buy local produce make more environmental sense than a three-mile drive for produce that is not nearly as local? --Gareth in Saline, Michigan

Eating food grown close to home can save transportation energy, but don’t make a fetish of it. For you, a weekly trip to the farmers’ market isn’t all that virtuous, even if the food in your supermarket traveled 2,000 miles. That's because the big rig it rode in needed about a gallon of fuel to move 150 pounds of food that distance. If your car gets 20 miles per gallon, your farmers' market pilgrimage would require almost a gallon of gas more than your round-trip to the supermarket. So you’d have to buy 150 pounds of food at the farmers' market each week to match the energy efficiency of the big, bad corporate food-transportation system. But if that supermarket food is flown halfway across the world, the equation can change drastically. A lot depends on what you’re buying and how it was shipped.

But energy is not the only issue. Farmers at local markets are often good stewards of the land, and direct contact with growers makes it easier to push for cleaner farming practices. Ideally, you should make fewer trips to the farmers’ market; buy lots of stuff when it’s in season; and can, dry, ferment, freeze, pickle, or preserve it for out-of-season use. Plus you could bike to the supermarket -- and even to the farmers' market.

Comments

[Leon]

I am getting conflicting data about GHG effecting global warming. Accoring to Pete Jonjer, temperature on earth rise before CO2 levels. The average period bettween the two effects is 800 - 1300 yrs. Gore confused cause and effect by shrinking hisgraphs timeline (X-axis). If CO2 levels drive temperatures why is it we were experiencing reduced tempertures globally in the 60s and 70s.And in th e30s the temperatures around the globe were higher than last few decades.
Pete is an appointee to the EPAs CAA Advisory Committee. You might want to read the Whole story in the May 12 2008 issue of "Waste news"

[cassi]

Thanks for the great perspective about the farmer's market vs. food store travel; I have been in a similar predicament. I travel almost solely by bicycle, but my farmer's market is 25 miles away (50 mile round-trip) - somewhat do-able in April and October, but pretty taxing now when temps are in the mid-90's. I'm no Lance Armstrong!

Most times I have made the trip I have either borrowed a car, or ridden with a friend, but still didn't feel great about driving. I only hoped that since the market is the enterprise of an Amish community - entirely horse-driven machinery in combination with human power - this may have provided a slight offset to my car riding.

In thinking over the logic in this article, I am resigned to toughing-up and making less frequent trips by bicycle, and hauling back bigger quantities for freezing and preserving. It's hard to forego having all fresh, but I think this will provide the best balance.

Thanks for the perspective - love the podcast!