WHY IT PAYS TO BUY LOCALLY GROWN FOOD

A recent issue of Sierra explains that the next frontier for discriminating eaters in a rapidly warming world may well be "food miles" - the distance products must travel to get to your market. Recently, Richard Pirog and others at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University

The easiest way to cut down on your food's gas bill is to eat locally grown tare. Pirog is also looking into the feasibility of food labels indicating point of origin and miles traveled. Meanwhile, it wouldn't hurt to ask how far (and fast) those strawberries had to travel to get on your tahle in January. Rememher to take into account your own location.

Another consideration is the environmental impact of transporting food, i.e., total mileage isn't the only factor.

Notes Siena: "Even though California is more than 5,000 miles closer to Iowa than Chile is, the energy savings of its grapes are only marginal. Why? Because Chilean grapes are sent to the Golden State by sea. From there they continue on to Iowa by truck, the same as Californian grapes. (This effect is obviously dependent on the endpoint: The closer the destination is to the port in Los Angeles, the greater the relative energy cost of the Chilean grapes.) But good news! Grape production in Iowa is increasing fast."

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