“Gotta Catch ‘em All”: The Diary of a Well-Travelled Plate

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As a child of the nineties, the Pokémon motto “Gotta catch ‘em all”—a strange foreign-born extension of America’s hunger for ever more of everything—remains an indelible facet of my childhood. Many a recess was spent trying to name the countless Pokémon (here, try your hand at it: http://www.sporcle.com/games/g/pokemon) as we avidly traded Pokémon cards for cash, candy, anything. Back and forth the cards would whip, from person to person, until they landed in the possession of the most dedicated Pokémaster. Much like the Pokémon cards of my childhood, the produce and processed foods many of us eat has been shuffled to and fro. Though, instead of passing amongst the hands of school-aged children, our food has been shuttled from the hands of farmers to middlemen, from the hands of agribusiness firms to massive shipping depots, and, lastly, to our hands in local stores. Like Ash, many of our produce and food products have gone on long journeys through countries and states far from home. Yet, instead of collecting Pokémon, our food, the modern Ash, collects passport stamps as it routinely crosses country borders.

The concept of food crossing country borders has hardly gone the way of forgotten Pokémon cards swept to the very back of bedroom closets. Today, a healthy generation of “locavores,” conscientious eaters who try to fill their diet with local foods have concerned themselves with food miles. Currently, food miles are defined as the distance a food item travels from farm to fork. According to the National Resource Defense Commission’s report on food miles (see it here: http://food-hub.org/files/resources/Food%20Miles.pdf) locavores must contend with, “on average, ingredients from at least five countries outside the United States” in any given American meal.

Though many may see the importation of foods from halfway across the country and overseas as perfectly acceptable, the journey any given piece of produce takes is hardly as benign as Ash’s many journeys. Each freighter, plane, and truck required in moving a food item from its place of origin to stores near you and I releases pollution in the form of greenhouse gases, smog forming pollutants, and particulate matter. This pollution contributes to widespread environmental degradation, health issues like asthma, and more. Buying food with fewer food-miles, like local or regional foods, has other potential benefits including:

• Superior taste, freshness, and added health value
• Contribution to local economies
• Protection of family farms

The ideas behind food-miles are, at their surface, easy to understand. Yet, there is debate as to whether the current methods of calculating food miles, such as online calculators and statistical models, take the complexities of food transport into account. FastCompany’s post “Food Miles Debunked” attests that “delivery of the final food product to the grocery store accounts for just a quarter of that travel. The other three quarters comes from delivery of inputs to farms and factories,” greatly reducing the role food miles in conservation (see the post here: http://www.fastcompany.com/article/food-miles-debunked). Thus far, the Lifecycles Project California-based calculator has best addressed the issues inherent in calculating food-miles. Their web-based calculator (try it out on a favorite food item: http://localfooddirectory.ca/?q=foodmiles) takes into account not only distance traveled, but the greenhouse gas emissions inherent in different types of transportation.

As each new generation of Pokemon hits the market—most recently, Pokemon Black and White—we are reminded that the wheels of change never cease. Likewise, the concept of food-miles will inevitably take root and become an ever-increasing field of study.

-Hope