You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local

You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local

Date posted: 24 January 2020

Today a new blog from Our World in Data discusses how we need to look at what we eat rather than whether our food is local. 

There is rightly a growing awareness that our diet and food choices have a significant impact on our carbon ‘footprint’. What can you do to really reduce the carbon footprint of your breakfast, lunches, and dinner?
‘Eating local’ is a recommendation you hear often – even from prominent sources, including the United Nations. While it might make sense intuitively – after all, transport does lead to emissions – it is one of the most misguided pieces of advice.

Eating locally would only have a significant impact if transport was responsible for a large share of food’s final carbon footprint. For most foods, this is not the case.

GHG emissions from transportation make up a very small amount of the emissions from food and what you eat is far more important than where your food traveled from.

Click here to read the full article