"Eating local is not sustainable"
An estimate that frequents many locavore websites maintains that food, on average, travels 1,500 miles to get to your plate. That’s about the distance from Dallas, Texas to Boston, Massachusetts. Another estimate says it is as high as 4,200 miles. During this distance, food mile counters assert that carbon emissions soar. However farming and food processing is not as simple as an odometer. In short, farming is a practice that can create a tremendous amount of emissions depending on a variety of factors.
Expert James McWilliams author of the book Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, says people need to stop thinking of crops as being transported alone. He uses an example of a tomato traveling 2,000 miles with 2,000 other tomatoes. Much like buying in bulk is cheaper in price, transportation in bulk is much more efficient than the tens of thousands of people who will buy a single tomato and drive it home. All told, about 20 percent of total emissions from food are from consumer transportation.
Overall, supply-chain transportation contributes to an estimated 5-6 percent of all carbon emissions. While measures to reduce this impact should not be ignored, it should not be the sole focus as the eat local movement makes it out to be. What should be a major focus is farming production which contributes to about 45 percent of carbon emissions. This is where biotechnology can be of some service.
Read more at the Genetic Literacy Project