What is all the fuss about seasonal and local food?
Do you know where your food comes from or how far it has travelled to your dinner plate?
Nowadays, food supply is largely globalized. Today you can buy a variety of products imported from all around the world. We have now become used to cooking with vegetables and fruits of any season, without knowing their origins or associated environmental impacts. Such effects can be many before your food even reaches your dinner table!
One study found that the average Swedish breakfast has travelled 24,000 food miles ( the circumference of the Earth!)
So, what exactly are these environmental impacts?
Production Process
Non-organic vegetables and fruits are often treated with pesticides and grown with fertilizers. These cause damage to the environment as well as impacting your health. In terms of seasonality, even locally grown food is often cultivated outside the normal growing seasons and inside greenhouses. These use more energy than if simply grown in season.
Non-organic vegetables and fruits are often treated with pesticides and grown with fertilizers. These cause damage to the environment as well as impacting your health. In terms of seasonality, even locally grown food is often cultivated outside the normal growing seasons and inside greenhouses. These use more energy than if simply grown in season.
Transportation
So the food is grown and produced – how does it get from the farm to you? “Food miles” is the distance that food is transported from the farm to the consumer. As emissions from the transportation sector account for a large portion of global greenhouse gas emissions, buying locally produced foods can contribute to a reduction of these nasty climate changing emissions.
Purchase
Choosing locally made products supports local farmers. Cheap imported foods affect the livelihoods of small scale farmers. Therefore, buying local can support a more sustainable local economy.
