This past summer, I became more aware of how far my food was travelling to me from the point it was produced. Even the organic stuff, on average, travelled somewhere between 1500-2400 miles before it arrived at my table to be consumed. That was bothersome to the girl who grew up on a farm where we grew and preserved our own veggies, we raised and butchered our own chicken, turkeys, ducks and pork. Most everything I ate growing up came from within 500 feet of my house.
If you’ve never heard the term “food mile”, it’s defined as the distance a food item has to travel to the consumer before it is consumed. The term was first coined in the 1990s by Andrea Paxton when she wrote about about how far food was travelling before it was being consumed. Today, food miles are used in the process to assess the environmental impact of food and are used in the broader context of sustainability. Research is finding that you not only have to consider how far the food has travelled, but also how it was transported to where you are to truly assess what kind of impact it has to the environment.
The first eye opening experience was going to the grocery store and looking at how far some of the my favorite foods were travelling.
Fruit from Chile – 4638 miles from Santiago to Houston
Apples from New Zealand – 7525 Miles from Wellington to Houston
Yogurt from Johnston NY – 1768 Miles to Houston
Yogurt from Londonderry NH – 1894 Miles to Houston
Pork from Iowa - 1043 Miles to Houston
Organic Tomatos from Colorado – 920 Miles to Houston
It didn’t dawn on me the impact that my buying locally could have.
Vegetables from my garden and Eggs from Mrs. B’s Chickens – 10 Miles from my house (2-3 times a week)
Chicken from Waller County – 53 Miles from Houston – Bought at the Farmer’s Market a 1/4 mile from my house
Beef from the other side of Houston – 26 miles – Bought at the Farmer’s Market a 1/4 miles from my house
Milk at the Grocery Store – from Floresville TX – 226 miles.
The reduction of my grocery bill because I’m growing a lot of my own veggies has allowed me to support local farmers and products that are produced in a way that I can live with and believe in.
