3 ms·

Organic, sure. Local? I disagree. I'm sure it's hard to measure, but I imagine the impact of transporting perishable foods long distances is pretty great. Mo

• evgen 10y ago
  > I'm sure it's hard to measure, but I imagine the impact of transporting perishable foods long distances is pretty great. You would be incorrect. The modern food distribution system is a high-volume, low-margin system that runs incredibly efficiently and any advance you could come up with that can squeeze even a tenth of a percent more energy efficiency into the process would make you incredibly wealthy. There are an order of magnitude more 'food miles' racked up when consumers drive to the local grocery store and return home that went into delivering that food to the store in the first place. In fact, local food is often _less_ efficient in terms of transportation energy costs because it lacks the economies of scale and the efficiencies that come from that in the regular food distribution system.