It has traveled around the world in less than eighty days... twice.
Its passport has stamps from countries that do not exist.
It has posed nude in the studio of Rembrandt.
It is the apple, the most interesting produce on Earth.
Stay hungry my friends.
For hundreds of years, apples have been grown in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Orchards there have seen the bloodshed of the Battle of Gettysburg and the mega-stores blossoming amongst the hills. Today, these apples and the livelihoods of farmers that have tended them are endangered by the globalization of agriculture hinted at in the above Dos Equis parody. According to the New York Times, in 2007 apple production in China had increased enough to dominate the production of “nearly half of all apples grown in the world” (Hefling). The effects of globalized agriculture are not limited to the local scale, but, instead, touch people all across the Earth. It is argued that foods with high “food miles,” the distance a food item travels from production to consumption, have a larger carbon footprint and contribute more to environmental degradation than their local counterparts. The new era of food mile-rich commodities heralds problems ranging from the collapse of some local economies, to the declining food safety and quality, and to ecological damage. In order to escape these realities, a two-fold approach should be taken by Penn State’s students and administration. Students should do their part in raising awareness of the issues in food production and food ethics through food blogging. In response, Penn State’s administration should undertake efforts to implement Pollock local theme dinners and food mile labels on dining options. By making these changes an awareness of food miles will be sown, allowing for the growth of local economies, increased food safety and quality, and more Earth-friendly production on a regional, countrywide, and worldwide scale.
In order to better understand the complex issue of food miles it is necessary to formulate a clear-cut definition of what food miles truly are. As noted above, the erudite foodie, concerned with the production and ethics of food in the modern world, often defines food miles as the distance food travels from the farm to the fork. While seemingly obvious, the term food miles has greater depth than the average consumer realizes, stemming from the methods by which food is transported, the number of stops along the way, and the volume of food shipped to consumers. Each of these facets must be considered to arrive at a meaningful definition of the term food miles.
First, the food we buy at grocery stores arrives from all corners of the world on ships, planes, and trucks. The food miles accrued by each mode of transportation varies depending upon the product’s origin and destination. For instance, ships leaving from St. Petersburg, Russia bound for China would have to circumvent both Europe and Asia. Conversely, a plane leaving from St. Petersburg, Russia bound for China could fly directly to China. Trucks carrying food are limited by the available infrastructure, sometimes making a long journey short and vice versa. Second, the number of stops made along the journey from field to fork can add up quickly. Imagine two produce growers transporting their tomatoes from Virginia to State College. The first stops ten times along the ride, but the second stops just once. Who has accrued more food miles? Without question, the first grower has accrued the most food miles. Once the food has made its final stop, the consumers come into play. The further the consumers must travel to buy their food, the more food miles a product will accumulate. This too should be considered when totaling food miles, as shipping food to more local stores (where consumers are less likely to drive far or even at all) can reduce the overall miles of food products. Third, the volume shipment makes a dramatic impact on the calculation of food miles. Again, imagine the same two produce growers transporting their tomatoes from Virginia to State College. The first has a large commercial truck, but the second has a small pickup truck. The commercial truck has the capacity to carry ten times the tomatoes carried by the pickup truck. Assuming neither truck stops along the way and both have the same gas mileage, who has accrued more food miles per tomato? In this case, the tomatoes carried by the pickup truck have more food miles per tomato than the commercial truck’s tomatoes.
While hardly a revelation, the very core of the food mile dilemma stems from American consumers’ infatuation with cheap goods and services. Consider, for example, the typical American prepared meal. On average, it contains ingredients from at least five countries outside of the United States (according to youthXchange statistics). But why? Because it is cheaper and more economical to import certain foods than it is to produce them here in America. As a result, the food miles are adding up.
In this age of globalization, outsourcing has ballooned. According to a study released this past month by Investors.com, approximately “1.3 million additional Western jobs will vanish by 2014 due to the accelerated movement of work to India and other offshore locations.” Unsurprisingly, the food industry is following this trend. All major food and grocery chains recognize that demand for produce doesn’t stop when the weather gets cold. Subsequently, they turn to foreign countries capable of growing fruits and vegetables in America’s off season to avoid having unmet demand and a subsequent loss in profits. Driven by this profit motive, produce giants like Wal-Mart and Wegmans buy massive amounts of food from places like New Zealand, China, Chile, and France (as evidenced by sustainweb.org’s comprehensive list of countries) to pad their bottom line. Although this system gets food on the table, it does so at the expense of the environment and the general wellbeing of people everywhere.
To support the city of Oxford’s (England) food chain, according to a study conducted by Oxfood, an estimated 450,000 tons of CO2 are emitted each year, amounting to 3 tons per person. And if these statistics represent just one city, imagine the amount of CO2 emitted annually to support the State College area and beyond. In the short run, these greenhouse gases have an adverse effect on air quality, water quality, and the facades of buildings (acid rain). While these detractions may be negligible on a day-to-day basis, they add up over time. In the long run, significant decreases in air and water quality have a tremendous impact on the ability of the respiratory system to function properly and lead to the general degradation of health. Furthermore, greenhouse gas emissions contribute to the warming of the planet, which causes glacial ice to melt. This particular shift in climate leads to more hurricanes, tornadoes, and other extreme weather events while also causing sea levels to rise globally. Equally troubling, as food travels to consumers’ plates across the country, local farmers, grocers, and packagers suffer. The advent of big-box corporations like Wal-Mart, Wegmans, and Walgreens often heralds the closing of many local shops that cannot compete with such giants. This catastrophically affects local economies. Last, the longer food must travel to reach consumers, the more preservatives are added. Such additives are not considered to be part of a healthy diet. In conjunction with these additives, the variety of food present on grocery store shelves is increasingly lacking. Companies demand produce that ships the best, rather than what tastes the best or is the most nutritious. These side effects, however, are not preordained. If the proper corrective measures are taken, all people will benefit.
Together, Penn State students and administrators can work to change the high-food mile culture so readily embraced today. Our global food supply system, though convenient to many, creates problems throughout the world. This image of convenience in our global food supply system appeals to many unknowing consumers, creating the illusion of impassibility. This system functions not as a forced condition, but rather as a choice (and a poor choice at that).
Knowledge and awareness can help eliminate the root of this issue: ignorance. With a more educated and ethically conscious consumer market, the trend toward locally grown and organic food will blossom. In practice, this means depending upon all mediums possible to disseminate information. Closing off access to the internet, television, radio, and more, would severely restrict the growth and development of this movement. Multitudes of people visit food blogs to learn about new recipes and helpful tips, increasing the culinary prowess of many, but this is just one use for food blogs. In order to be the change students wish to see in the world, Penn State students should embrace food bogging. Their blogs could share information about local produce suppliers or farmers’ markets, as well as articles offering nutritional information on internationally and locally raised food. Food blogs’ ease of access promotes activisim and education, both of which are vital elements of change. As an efficient and far-reaching method of information sharing, blogs possess a great capacity to educate many on the issue of food miles. Educate the consumers, and they in turn will cause the necessary changes in the food supply.
In order to facilitate the reduction of food miles at Penn State, administrators should participate in the aforementioned education process. No longer can they stand on the sideline and allow students’ ideas to perish without support. If a change is truly to be effective it requires the support and backing of a influential and wealthy base of intellectuals. More specifically, it must be a university-wide effort to educate students about the detriments of food miles. One educational initiative could include efforts to implement theme dinners at Pollock which emphasize local food products. Though costly in the short run, this initiative would easily be paid off by students excited to spend an extra dollar on a value-added meal. They already do so at the upscale dinners offered at each dining commons and the new Cafe Laura. For far less money, food mile labels on each food item at dining halls would allow students to make informed decisions on what foods they will eat. After all, each bite is a vote. Let’s elect local food!
No longer can we sit insipid and uneducated about how our very sustenance, the food we eat, is produced and transported to us. No longer can we afford to destroy the environment that provides for mankind, the local economies that connect our communities, or the very quality of the foods that nourish us by supporting well-travelled foods. No longer can we justify eating food which has traveled further than most Americans will in their lifetime. Regardless, we can be the change. We, as Penn State students and administrators, are the impetus for change. We are capable of sowing the seed of knowledge, tending to efforts to make foods low in food miles easier for students to access, and reaping the benefits from our actions. We are Penn State, and we want local food!
Works Cited
Helfing, Kimberly. “U.S. Apple Growers Feel Heat From China.” The New York Times. 25 June 2007. Web. 7 Dec 2011.
< http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/business/worldbusiness/25iht-apples.1.6312540.html?pagewanted=all>.
"oxfood.co.uk." (Local) Food and Climate Science-some facts. Oxfood, n.d. Web. 7 Dec 2011. <http://www.oxfood.co.uk/tag/food-miles/>.
"rttsweb.com." Outsourcing. RTTP, n.d. Web. 7 Dec 2011. <http://www.rttsweb.com/outsourcing/statistics/>.
"sustainweb.org." Geography: food miles. sustainweb.org, n.d. Web. 7 Dec 2011. <http://www.sustainweb.org/g5cp/s3_g2.htm>.
"youthxchange.net." youthXchange. UNEP/UNESCO, n.d. Web. 7 Dec 2011. <http://www.youthxchange.net/main/b226_food_miles-a.asp>.
