By Chuck Smith

There are many things we can do to lower our environmental impact and help foster sustainability in our region.

Most folks are familiar with many of them: Buy a smaller vehicle (best when your old model is pretty worn out), weatherize and tighten you homes, and basic conservation strategies like turning off the lights and lowering the thermostat.

All of these efforts are good practices and will lower your “environmental footprint.”

However, did you ever think about the food you eat, especially in the context of environmental health and economics?

We probably should, because when you purchase and consume locally produced organic vegetables, fruits and pastured meats you are engaging in one of the most powerful acts of environmental and broadly based economic sustainability that is possible.

Did you know that our current agricultural and industrial food system, when you add fertilizers, pesticides, transportation, processing and packaging, uses almost as much petroleum as all our private cars?

It’s true.

Almost 20 percent of the nation’s petroleum and natural gas is employed to grow, transport, process and package the food we find in our supermarkets and restaurants.

On average, it takes 11 fossil fuel calories to produce one calorie of food energy in the U.S.

Or another way to look at it, the average American “eats” about 500 gallons of oil per year.

If you have an oil furnace, that figure may be close to what you purchase for a year’s worth of home heating.

You may have also heard that buying locally (food, as well as other products) is good for the local economy. This is explained by economists as the multiplier effect, or how many times that currency circulates in the local economy before it leaves the area or region.

When your money is spent at locally owned businesses, it remains in the area and supports other local businesses for longer than if it went directly to a corporate headquarters in some other state or country. This is particularly true with purchasing local food because the product is not just sold locally it is also produced locally. Almost 90 percent of your dollar goes to the local economy. For comparison, buy something online, perhaps 1 percent stays in your local economy. Other purchases are somewhere in between.

Of course, local, fresh and organic food is also superior in nutrition, taste and freshness and carries none of the chemicals and hormones that most conventional food does.

Also, please do be aware that food labeled “organic” in your supermarkets, while they do abide by USDA Organic Standards, are grown, processed and transported on the industrial model. These foods are probably better for you and the soil. Yet they are many hundreds or thousands of miles less fresh and do much less to keep money in your local economy or your neighbors on their farms.

It is certain that some local foods cost more than conventional supermarket fare, but the price of local food is comparable or even less than “organic” labeled. While you may pay a premium of sorts, it is nice to remember the multiplier effect and know your money is going to support your community, while you are eating and feeding your family with nutritious, tasty food, not gulping down the one and a half gallons of oil per day mentioned above.

Now it is very difficult to eat locally grown food throughout the year. But the opportunities are here more than ever and they continue to expand. Start out small. Visit your local farmers’ market and purchase some items.
Buy what you like to eat, but experiment, as well. Talk to the vendors. I bet you will make a friend of two.

Cook more and involve the family — maybe even turn off the television and start a small garden. There are lots of books on the growing (re)localization of food movement. One of the better and more entertaining ones comes from noted novelist (though this book is non-fiction) Barbara Kingsolver, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” Pick it up and give it a try, then share it with others.

Think globally – eat locally!

Chuck Smith is the Director of the Sustainable Development Program at Appalachian State University.