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Spring is Here, it’s Time to Think About Where Your Food Comes From

Food Miles is a relatively new term, meaning how far did the items on your plate travel between harvest and eating? The average distance for food in the U.S. is well over one thousand miles. Think of the stickers on your produce that inform you of where it came from, it’s often from the farthest reaches of South America. We import most of our apple juice from China. Yes, that’s right.

What does this mean? Fruits and vegetables that are picked before they are ripe and are often treated with something (e.g., irradiated) to maintain freshness. Foods that are grown or raised in locations that may not have the same pollution controls that are in place where you live. It means that the lack of ripeness (and perhaps less nutrition as a result) or the contamination due to heavy metals in soil, water, and air where the food was produced, and the added stress on the planet from the fuel consumed to bring food to you over very long distances has fundamentally changed the value of the food itself.

The movement toward local eating is growing. Some are inspired to grow some tomatoes, peppers, and green beans out back, or have discovered the local section at the grocery store, or now frequent a farmers market nearby. Energy Shift likes what Growing a Greener World is doing. Here is just one example of the wonderful stories they are telling: http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode219/

Watch it, it will inspire you!