Food miles: Time to Rethink the Way You Eat

Despite significant concern for the environmental impacts of food production, few take into account the "food miles" that come along with it. Food miles refer to the distance food travels to plate. In the United States it is estimated that food travels an average of 1,500 miles to plate. This is a cause for concern for numerous reasons:

The U.S agricultural trade surplus is smallest since 2007 (USDA, 2019) . Imports have been on a steady rise over the last four decades and this is mainly due to an increase in consumption and new legislation allowing certain foreign imports by the U.S Department of Agriculture. Crops that previously would have not been approved because they might introduce invasive pests and diseases were allowed in through new “systems approaches” that manage these risks by methods such as pesticides and crop bagging (New York Times, 2018). As a result, imported fresh fruit eaten in the United States rose from 23 percent in 1975, to 53.1 in 2016, and fresh vegetables from 5.8 to 31.1 (Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, 2016). Since this has made it possible to consume any produce, during any season, consumption has fallen for crops predominantly grown in America such as peaches, oranges, cabbage and celery.

In most states, fruits and vegetables are only in season for a short period of time. In states such as California, Florida, and Texas, seasons last longer, but seasonality still limits production. Pair this with consumption patterns in the United States, and it causes us to import the produce from another country.

Statistical Review of World Energy 2008

• America makes up 5% of the world's population, but consumes 24% of the world's energy.
• A study done on fruit and vegetable consumption found that 54% of respondents sought out packaged produce.
• With a growing demand for produce year round, Americans are moving towards frozen, packaged foods to eat.
• America as a whole consumes an excess of 200 billion calories a day, enough to feed an extra 80 million people. Around 200,000 tons of that food is thrown out daily.
• With beef being one of the most consumed meats in America, 56% of farmland is used for beef production. This results in 80% of corn and 95% of oats grown in the U.S being used to feed livestock.

Transportation represented 11% of life-cycle GHG emissions in regards to foods (Weber, Matthews, 2008). Over 90 percent of imported fruits and vegetables come from Mexico, Central America, and South America ( U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service, 2021). In 2020, the United States imported beef from 21 countries, with Canada, Mexico and Australia being at the top of the list. Why would the United States Import 2.48 billion lbs of beef in 2021 when we exported roughly 2.58 billion lbs? Because we are able to buy it for much cheaper from other countries. This has to do with the economics of food miles and why they exist. Cheap labor, lower production & manufacturing costs, and regulations are all reasons why it is cheaper in most cases.

Food miles are a very unsustainable practice. They result in extra steps that could be eliminated if we were to restructure Americas food system and our behavior towards what we eat. Some foods are grown in one country, shipped to another for packaging, and than shipped back to the country to be consumed. This may cut down on cost, but isn't very efficient or sustainable. Food companies and grocery stores need to work on greening their supply chain. It has been shown that by doing so, production becomes cheaper and more efficient in the long run (Chin, Tat, Sulaiman, 2014) . In regards to consumer behavior, there needs to be a shift in attitude towards what we eat, and how much we consume. Eating foods that are only in season, buying local, and reducing consumption of imported goods are all examples of how consumers can be more sustainable.

The governance of food miles is a very complex system with many different actors and institutions involved. By applying the social ecological framework invented by Elinor Ostrom (2009) we gain valuable context into how all these parts intertwine and come together to create governance. The framework categorizes governance into three sections : resource systems and environmental commons , governance systems and users/actors. Resource systems and environmental commons involved are air quality and food quality. Governance systems include food companies, , Grocery stores, and The U.S government. Users/Actors include Food companies, Grocery Stores, and consumers.

Food is very mobile and the most common way of transporting food is through sea shipping, but this takes the most time for food to reach shelves. With a growing demand for food in the U.S., they are starting to move towards airfreight and trucking to get food to plate quicker. Airfreight produces 10 times more carbon emissions than road transport and around 50 times more than shipping. Throughout the transportation process carbon-dioxide, nitrous oxides, and atmospheric particulates are released into the atmosphere. Air pollution not only contributes to climate change but is exacerbated by it. With air quality being an environmental common, we should all have access to clean air that is healthy to breathe. In the United States, the Clean Air Act, authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to safeguard public health by regulating the emissions of these harmful air pollutants (Clean Air Act).

A study done by The Journal of the American College of Nutrition, compared U.S. Department of Agriculture data from 1950 and 1999 for 13 nutrients in 43 crops. The researchers found that, on average, all thirteen minerals evaluated had declined; On top of this, foods are becoming highly processed, sprayed with chemicals to increase shelf-life and shipped thousands of mile away where they wont reach stores for weeks. In order to transport food long distances, it is often picked while unripe and then gassed to “ripen” it after transport, or it is highly processed in factories using preservatives, and other means for it to be able to transport (CUESA). University of California studies show that vegetables can lose 15 to 55 percent of vitamin C, within a week.

Pesticides have a wide range of environmental externalities associated with them. The main issue, is that when these pesticides are sprayed they leak into the soil and waterways, causing biodiversity loss and eutrophication. These chemicals can also contaminate drinking water in the areas it has leaked into. Overtime, insects begin to build resistance to pesticides, causing more to be sprayed, creating a positive feedback loop that continues to get worse.

In small amounts, pesticide exposure may cause short-term adverse health effects such as; Nausea, dizziness, and diarrhea. Long term exposure has been shown to cause brain and nervous system damage, birth defects, infertility, and damage to the bodies organs, and increase risks to certain cancers.

Food companies, grocery stores, and the U.S government all play a part in the governance of food miles. Many large food comapnies have began purchasing meat and produce from farms outside of the U.S, because it has become much cheaper due to the governance of food production overseas. While large companies are trying to maximize profits, grocery store are trying to cash in on food miles as well. It has become normal to have access to produce, regardless of what season. This has caused an increase in demand for fruits and vegetables year round, resulting in grocery stores sourcing from overseas. Grocery stores wholesalers have forced farmers to become serfs on their own land. globalization has caused prices to drop, and as a result small scale farmers can't turn a profit. The U.S Department of Agriculture has made it increasingly harder to be a farmer in the U.S. due to regulations, causing many farmers to move production to Mexico. They have also made it increasingly easier to import food to America, due to the use of pesticides and other non-natural process of food cultivation that deem them "safe" for transport. Food companies, grocery stores, and citizens are all actors involved with food miles. As long as Americans continue consuming at this rate, food companies and grocery stores are going to continue to import products from overseas. It's largely up to the consumers to change their attitude if they want to see change. Many users are unaware of the SES framework surrounding food miles, which is why it has become so prevalent to overexploit them.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture influences more than one would think. They are responsible for regulating the food you eat, along with supposedly working in the interests of local farmers and citizens to ensure safety. This is far from what they have done. The USDA has been lobbied to support the interest of large, highly industrial agribusiness, instead of protecting the farms that are the backbone of the country. In 2017, Secretary Perdue announced plans for a major reorganization of the USDA. The details of these plans included establishing a new Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs (TFAA), and eliminating the the USDAs rural development mission area and its undersecretary (USDA, 2017). It is becoming increasingly harder for small scale farmers to keep up with large corporations. Small-scale farms, those bringing in less than $350,000 a year before expenses, accounted for just a 25 percent of food production in 2017, down from nearly 50 percent in 1991 (TIME, 2019). We used to only eat local food, and farmers would make steady profits, but now it is a dying industry due to it's governance.

There are many ways we can improve the governance of food miles. It all starts with the users, who can use their voice and attitudes to change the way we think about food. Through Local governance, users can cause a trickle affect that moves all the way to the national level. Toxic taters is a great example of how local governance can make an impact on how something is governed. They used local action to to pass a law that limited the use of aerial application of pesticides in their community. This story made national news, making more of an impact than just at the local level, by raising awareness of the issues.

Buying local has environmental, health, social and economic benefits. Small scale farms help promote biodiversity in the surrounding ecosystem. Most small scale farmer use traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) to farm, instead of using large amounts of unconventional farming techniques. Traditional ecological knowledge refers to a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive practices handed downs through generations (Berkes, 2015). Elmo Snelling is an example of someone who has TEK, a farmer in Texas who has been growing crops there with his family for over 70 years. He understands the soil, climate, what grows and what doesn't. His knowledge on the environment and ecosystem of Texas, is far higher than the average joe. TEK has been shown to reduce environmental impacts and promote sustainability (Ruiz-Mallen & Corbera, 2013 ). Not only doe this result in a better environment, locally grown food tends to be fresher and have less chemical contamination than shipped produce. Study's have shown that communities with a large amount of small scale business, including farms, tend to be healthier (ILSR, 2016). Buying fresh local food means much more nutrient dense food, since it hasn't had to travel as far. Supporting local business is an investment into your community, because that business pays local taxes, thus promoting the development of better public services and prosperity among the population.

The IPCC reports any increase in global warming will affect food and water safety around the world (IPCC). According to the USDA, more than 38 million people, including 12 million children, in the United States are food insecure. Through government subsidies and programs from the USDA, we could move towards a less commercialized aspect of farming and focus on feeding communities. Urban farming is a great example of how we can shift towards a more sustainable approach on farming. Food deserts in cities have become a growing cause for concern, resulting in products being shipped all the way from overseas to make up for it. With a growing population, we need to ensure that we are able to feed everyone sustainably. Urban farming is helping tackle food insecurity by making fresh produce easily accessible to communities. They implement sustainable growing methods, such as hydroponics, which uses as much as 10 times less water and up to 99 percent less land than conventional farming (Boylan, 2020). This is much better for the environment because it doesn't require much land and increases water security in the process. These urban gardens are essentially commons that are governed by the local community. Ostrom lays out 8 design principles that one can use to help govern common pool resources, some of which include clear boundaries, collective choice arrangements, and conflict resolution management (Ostrom, 2009) . If these principles are followed, it has shown success in governing common pool resources without the need of government regulation or privatization of the common.

It's difficult to get an accurate number of how many vegans exist in the U.S., but one survey found an increase of 300 percent in vegan population between 2004 and 2019, accounting for roughly 10 million Americans (IPSOS, 2019) . In 2004, it probably was very uncommon to be vegan, but as social norms changed over the years more people began to switch largely due to an increase in environmental awareness. This same principle can be applied to food miles. As more people start moving away from food miles and opting for locally grown food, more people will follow. Our society is becoming more socially aware of environmental issues through the use of social media. An example is a project done by diver John Waller. He took over 160,000 phots and over 250 hours of film of the Ross Sea to tell the story of global warming. The Ross Sea wasn't know very well, but through the use of media, Wallers work was published thousandths of times, and reached a global audience of around a billion people (John Weller, 2021). It was very influential in the ross sea becoming the largest marine protected area in the world. Social media is just one of the ways we can shift our social norms.

70 percent of our calories come from processed food. A  c omprehensive review of 172 clinical studies published in the Journal of American Clinical Nutrition concluded that virtually all chronic diseases are partially caused by our modern diet of engineered foods (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2005, Pages 341–354). Processed food usually contains high amounts of pesticides and contributes to a wide range of environmental problems such as poisoning plants, soil and animals and waterways. As we continue to spray these pesticides, we will need to continue to spray more and more because insects are starting to build a resistance. Processed foods make up a majority of foods that attribute to large food miles. Ways you can move away from processed food is by purchasing fresh produce, staying away from the freezer section, and lowering intake of junk food such as chips, candy etc.

Food miles are a relatively unaware subject that is governed very poorly leading to it being a very unsustainable practice. It is largely up to the U.S. government and the consumers of these foods to create change. As read above, there are multiple solutions to this governance issue. If we implement them, food miles could decline drastically, leading to a more sustainable and secure food system in America. Not only will this benefit the environment but also citizens, and future generations.

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