One of the delights of living outside the city is the opportunity to buy produce from roadside stands attached to local farms. But when I buy local, I’m not buying into the often repeated myth that doing so will save the planet. In reality, long distance transportation for the food we find in stores accounts for just 4% of global greenhouse gas emission impact associated with food, say researchers. In this brief and enlightening interview, Pierre Desrochers, associate professor of geography at the University of Toronto, explains why “buy local” food activists are wrong when they contend that the “100-mile diet” and similar strategies yield economic and environmental benefits.
If you want to buy local, that’s fine. But do so because you like the product.
