Going local, part I

“…a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.”

That is the assertion made on the front cover of the book, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. The case was made for me. From the book, I’ve learned some fun facts that are slowly starting to affect my food choices.

Steven L. Hopp, who teaches environmental studies at Emory and Henry College, has blurbs throughout the book. Here’s one (that is also excerpted at http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com):

“Americans put almost as much fossil fuel into our refrigerators as our cars. We’re consuming about 400 gallons of oil a year per citizen – about 17 percent of our nation’s energy use – for agriculture, a close second to our vehicular use. Tractors, combines, harvesters, irrigation, sprayers, tillers, balers, and other equipment all use petroleum. Even bigger gas guzzlers on the farm are not the machines, but so-called inputs. Synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides use oil and natural gas as their starting materials, and in their manufacturing. More than a quarter of all farming energy goes into synthetic fertilizers.

But getting the crop from seed to harvest takes only one fifth of the total oil used for our food. The lion’s share is consumed during the trip from the farm to your plate. Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1500 miles. In addition to direct transport, other fuel-thirsty steps include processing (drying, milling, cutting, sorting, baking), packaging, warehousing and refrigeration. Energy calories consumed by production, packaging and shipping far outweigh the energy calories we receive from the food. ..

If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That’s not gallons, but barrels.

Small changes in buying habits can make big differences.”
- Steven L. Hopp