Eat Your (Local) Veggies

Are you down with the whole “local food” craze? You know, buying food that hasn’t been shipped all over the world before it reaches your plate? The idea is to reduce the carbon footprint of your daily bread.

Reason is not impressed with the hot new trend. The short of it: it’s only environmentally advantageous if you also only eat food that’s in season. Seems it’s worse for the planet to grow food locally in artificial environments than to grow it on the other side of the world and then ship it here.

The article also talks about how little of the US and UK’s carbon footprint is created by food transportation, but I always find that a weak argument because it rests on the idea that if you can’t find a single “silver bullet” solution then you shouldn’t do anything.

Environmental damage is a sum a million small parts, and so is the solution.

UPDATE: Nashville food guru and femme fatale Joy Ramirez has everything you need to know about local foods and eating in season. Check out her blog: Joy of Cooking.