Food and Farming
The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024
In the first `100 days of 2024 we will explore 100 climate solutions that may “empower you to evaluate, engage, and act” to address on-going climate change as an individual on your terms.
There are a number of good reasons to support local farming and food sources, not the least is a moral or ethical drive to support one’s local community. From a climate standpoint, it is not necessarily true that sourcing your food locally will have an impact. It seems likely that if your food comes to you on a truck it will have a significant amount of associated emissions. However, Heidi cites studies that suggest that transportation is responsible for less than 15% of the emissions from the production of food.
A 2013 life cycle analysis of processed tomatoes in Michigan demonstrated the rough equivalence of energy use and emissions products from California compared to similar products sourced locally. The California products were shipped by rail: shipping by truck resulted in a fourfold energy increase for the imported goods and made the local products the climate choice.
“Food systems can never be reduced to a simple binary of local is better and conventional is worse or its inverse… because of the complexities of the production and distribution systems and their relationship to [greenhouse gas] emissions”
Christensen et al, 2017
Everything matters including agricultural practices, land use, energy for processing, and transportation. Widespread pesticide and fertilizer use, habitat loss, run-off, water resources and emissions have to be figured into a complex life cycle calculation. That said, if you go to your grocery store and pick up a can of tomato paste, it is likely you will not be able tell if it came to you by rail or by truck. I doubt your grocer will know.
Your action will follow your inclinations. For our family, we enjoy making the rounds of local farmer’s markets and sourcing the fresh produce from there. We choose to (and have the means to) choose locally sourced products as often as we can, but admit it is more about supporting our region (keeping the money here) than a concern for the relative climate impact: this is logical and consistent with our values.
I think we should all know much more about how our food reaches us than we typically do now. Exploring your local producers starts with deciding to be thoughtful about your choices and building awareness of your options. More frequent and routine visits to the farmer’s markets. Impulse buys from the roadside stand your pass on the way home from work. Checking out food co-ops.
And as always, eat healthy and in moderation. Cheers!
Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 36: Enjoy Your Chocolate Responsibly
Howard Creel
#rescuethatfrog
Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com