If I can, I generally choose to eat local produce. There's a large farmer's market in London (Borrough Market) where I buy most of my meat, fruit and veggies for the week. I don't particularly do it for the environmentalist perspective, but it's a decent side-benefit I suppose.
With that in mind, I found this guest Op-Ed from Stephen Budiansky in the NYT particularly interesting: Math lessons for Locavores. He pretty much takes ardent 'eat local' supporters to task if they do it for the wrong reason. A good read.
One of his readers responded with some interesting research of their own, that takes it a step further (and a step in the right direction as well, both logically and nutritionally):
A recent Department of Agriculture study reported that 28 percent of food energy use comes from households while much of the rest — 57.6 percent — comes from the processing, packaging, transportation, wholesale and retail, and food service energy use that locavores are seeking to avoid.
A real locavore cares about all of these steps.
A locavore wouldn’t go for a Twinkie, even if the Hostess factory were two miles down the road.
Please note the lack of food/eating puns that always accompany this sort of thing.
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