The Journey Behind Your Produce

The Palisadian-Post has partnered with locally founded environmental organization Resilient Palisades to deliver a weekly “green tip” to our readers. This week’s tip was written by Nika Nazarizadeh.

It’s no surprise that burning fossil fuels via gas-powered cars or air travel causes global warming. But what may come as a surprise to many is how many different ways we contribute to burning fossil fuels—many times without knowing.

Take the produce you buy at grocery stores. “Food miles” refers to the number of miles produce travels before it reaches the store.

Imported foods typically accumulate thousands of miles via airplane and truck. For example, the pack of strawberries in your refrigerator could have been grown in Florida, shipped to Georgia to be washed, sent to Arkansas for packaging, and then planed and trucked to the Palisades.

Also, keep in mind that produce needs to be refrigerated, so in addition to fossil fuels being emitted via transportation, energy is also expended keeping the produce cool throughout its lengthy journey.

Buying foods that are grown and produced locally is one of the easiest ways to reduce your carbon footprint. And in the Palisades, we’re fortunate to have a weekly farmers market where food miles are reduced from thousands to a few hundred at most.

Let’s resolve to do more to purchase and eat food grown locally. When we aren’t cautious about where our food is sourced, we unknowingly contribute to unnecessary emissions from extra food miles.

Conversely, if we take the time to read labels and notice where food is sourced, we help protect our planet.