Local and good food

Buying and eating local food is often presented as the best choice a person can make. It may mean having to wait for winter to pass to eat fresh tomatoes, but it gives the idea that it is much more sustainable: no waste in long-distance transportations, fresher food at disposal and a concrete support for the local farmers.

Nevertheless, understanding real advantages of “eating local” requires a more complex and complete study on the food system as a whole. “Food miles/kilometres don't tell the whole story”.

It may appear obvious, but less kilometres not necessarily mean a smaller environmental impact. It depends on how food is transported (with which means), as much as it depends on how food is grown (in terms of safety and quality of the products used and also in terms of greenhouse gas emissions levels).

Moreover, food sustainability has a lot to do whit  food consume behaviors. Meat and dairy, for example, contribute a high percentage of the total food emissions. Some researches prove that  “replacing red meat and dairy with vegetables one day a week would be like driving 1,160 miles less”.

So, the distance between the producer and the consumer can be one of the indicators, and it is an important one. But there are many other things that need to be considerate.   

Therefore, we should perhaps move from the expression “local food” to the expression “good food”, embracing the definition given by one of the largest  philanthropic foundations in the United States. According to W.K. Kellogg Foundation, these are the qualities that  food need to have to be called “Good food”.

Healthy

Providing nourishment and

enabling all people to thrive;

Green

Produced in a manner that is

environmentally sustainable;

Fair

No one along the food chain

is exploited in its creation;

Affordable

All people have access to it.