Who knew that eating local and organic foods could be so good for the climate? Here is a list of local and organic food providers and a report outlining the climate impacts of industrial agriculture, namely from long-distance transportation. Fortunately, the solutions are both simple and delicious -- buying local and organic foods that are better for the climate, our health, and the local economy. Bon appetite!1) Places to buy local and organic foods in Ann Arbor:
Do we really need to buy apples from Washington when there are orchards in our backyard? If you look carefully, most grocery stores have a growing selection of natural, organic, and in some cases, local foods. Kroger, Bush's, and many other supermarkets offer some choices. If you don't find what you're looking for, speaking to a manager or customer service representative could make a big difference. The places listed below specialize in local and organic food. Prices are competitive or sometimes cheaper if you buy produce that's in season or take advantage of bulk food items.
Ann Arbor Farmer's Market
Ann Arbor People's Food Co-op
Arbor Farms Market
Trader Joe's (chain)
Whole Foods Market (chain)
Michigan Daily article reviewing local food options
2) Food, Fuel, and Freeways, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, 2006.
This report shows that buying just 10% more of our food from local sources can make a big difference in our carbon footprints. It is about our cornhusker neighbor state, but the findings should be similar here in our Great Lakes home.
From the executive summary:"A food mile is the distance food travels from where it is grown or raised to where it is ultimately purchased by the consumer or end-user. A Weighted Average Source Distance (WASD) can be used to calculate a single distance figure that combines information on the distances from producers to consumers and amount of food product transported. U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service produce arrival data from the Chicago, Illinois terminal market were examined for 1981, 1989, and 1998, and a WASD was calculated for arrivals by truck within the continental United States for each year. Produce arriving by truck traveled an average distance of 1,518 miles to reach Chicago in 1998, a 22 percent increase over the 1,245 miles traveled in 1981.
A WASD was calculated for a sampling of data from three Iowa local food projects where farmers sold to institutional markets such as hospitals, restaurants, and conference centers. The food traveled an average of 44.6 miles to reach its destination, compared with an estimated 1,546 miles if these food items had arrived from conventional national sources.
Would there be transportation fuel savings and reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions if more food were produced and distributed in local and regional food systems? To answer this question, we calculated fuel use and CO2 emissions to transport 10 percent of the estimated total Iowa per capita consumption of 28 fresh produce items for three different food systems. A number of assumptions were used regarding production origin, distance traveled, load capacity, and fuel economy to make the calculations. The goal was for each of the three systems to transport 10 percent by weight of the estimated Iowa per capita consumption of these produce items from farm to point of sale.
The conventional system represented an integrated retail/wholesale buying system where national sources supply Iowa with produce using large semitrailer trucks. The Iowa-based regional system involved a scenario modeled after an existing Iowa-based distribution infrastructure. In this scenario a cooperating network of Iowa farmers would supply produce to Iowa retailers and wholesalers using large semitrailer and midsize trucks. The local system represented farmers who market directly to consumers through community supported agriculture (CSA) enterprises and farmers markets, or through institutional markets such as restaurants, hospitals, and conference centers. This system used small light trucks.
The conventional system used 4 to 17 times more fuel than the Iowa-based regional and local systems, depending on the system and truck type. The same conventional system released from 5 to 17 times more CO2 from the burning of this fuel than the Iowa-based regional and local systems.
Growing and transporting 10 percent more of the produce for Iowa consumption in an Iowa-based regional or local food system would result in an annual savings ranging from 280 to 346 thousand gallons of fuel, depending on the system and truck type. The high end of this fuel reduction would be equivalent to the average annual diesel fuel use of 108 Iowa farms. Growing and transporting 10 percent more of the produce for Iowa consumption in an Iowa-based regional or local food system would result in an annual reduction in CO2 emissions ranging from 6.7 to 7.9 million pounds, depending on the system and truck type."
