My favorite weekly ritual is shopping at the Montclair
Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings from June through October. Located at the Walnut St. train station in
Montclair, the market offers New Jersey’s freshest and finest fruits and
vegetables, cave-aged cheeses, eggs, bread, meats, fish, honey, wine and
more.
Buying locally-produced food is not only good for the local
economy, but it’s also good for the planet.
Here is an example. My local
grocery store sells cherry tomatoes grown in Mexico. Think about the costs – economic and
environmental – of transporting those tomatoes from Mexico to New Jersey. Yet, this is done every day. Here's another example. Fish caught off the coast of Norway are shipped to China where workers clean and filet them. Then, they are sent back to Norway and sold in the store. Think for a moment how much carbon dioxide is emitted while transporting those fish thousands of miles per trip.
I've wondered how many "food miles" my groceries have traveled? After a quick search, I found a "food miles calculator" on Organic Linker, The Organic and Eco Directory. After entering the food type, your location (country) and the country where the food was grown, this tool calculates the food miles and the CO2 emissions. Those Mexican tomatoes from the grocery store traveled approximately 1886 miles and released 679 kilograms of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By contrast, local tomatoes grown and purchased in Montclair, NJ would travel 0 food miles and release zero CO2. Even if the Jersey tomatoes were grown and transported from a farm 10 miles from Montclair, the carbon footprint would be considerably less than from those Mexican tomatoes.
The food miles calculator is not a scientific measure, as it does not consider many other factors such as the environmental cost of growing the food (pesticides, water, etc), harvesting, packaging, etc. However, it is a great learning tool to show students the impact of our food purchases on carbon dioxide emissions, one contributor to global climate change and environmental damage.
A similar interactive lets you calculate the environmental cost in food miles for fruit purchased in the UK. The challenge is to select fruits that would make a fruit salad with the lowest carbon footprint, which you can do with this tool.
For the five months -- June through October -- New Jersey farmers' markets are open, it makes sense to purchase produce locally, thus reducing our food miles and carbon footprint. Buying local is just more sustainable -- for the local economy and for the planet!
This link will help you find a NJ farmers' market in your area: http://www.state.nj.us/jerseyfresh/index.html
I've wondered how many "food miles" my groceries have traveled? After a quick search, I found a "food miles calculator" on Organic Linker, The Organic and Eco Directory. After entering the food type, your location (country) and the country where the food was grown, this tool calculates the food miles and the CO2 emissions. Those Mexican tomatoes from the grocery store traveled approximately 1886 miles and released 679 kilograms of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By contrast, local tomatoes grown and purchased in Montclair, NJ would travel 0 food miles and release zero CO2. Even if the Jersey tomatoes were grown and transported from a farm 10 miles from Montclair, the carbon footprint would be considerably less than from those Mexican tomatoes.
The food miles calculator is not a scientific measure, as it does not consider many other factors such as the environmental cost of growing the food (pesticides, water, etc), harvesting, packaging, etc. However, it is a great learning tool to show students the impact of our food purchases on carbon dioxide emissions, one contributor to global climate change and environmental damage.
A similar interactive lets you calculate the environmental cost in food miles for fruit purchased in the UK. The challenge is to select fruits that would make a fruit salad with the lowest carbon footprint, which you can do with this tool.
For the five months -- June through October -- New Jersey farmers' markets are open, it makes sense to purchase produce locally, thus reducing our food miles and carbon footprint. Buying local is just more sustainable -- for the local economy and for the planet!
This link will help you find a NJ farmers' market in your area: http://www.state.nj.us/jerseyfresh/index.html
