Living Planet Community - Take Action: Eat local foods

Eat local foods

Fill your plate with locally grown fruits, vegetables and packaged foods that you've bought at your grocery store, farmer's market or direct from the farm.

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What is local and sustainable food?

Local food is grown close to where it's being consumed, so it doesn't travel far distances to reach our plates. When food is transported over long distances - especially if by planes or trucks that burn fossil fuel energy - it contributes to global warming and pollution. Consider that the average food product travels 2,000 km before it reaches your home. Now multiply that by each food item you eat each day! That's a lot of fuel, which also means a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. Although local food isn't always available due to seasonality, it's all about doing your best. Every choice you make has an environmental impact and can help lower your carbon footprint.

Sustainable food is not always local, but is produced in a socially responsible manner, with lower impact on the environment. Some sustainable food practices even help protect and enhance wildlife habitats and biodiversity. Look for products like sustainable coffee beans. Although they may travel thousands of miles to reach your table in Canada, coffee is grown on perennial bushes that don't require plowing, which keeps soil carbon stored in the ground. They do not require refrigeration until they're roasted, which means they can travel in more efficient vessels like trains. Other environmental issues to consider when shopping for food include, waste, packaging and recycling.

Local sustainable food: When local sustainable choices are not available, consider purchasing either local or sustainable food to make greener shopping decisions.

How to do it

Read the signs closely in the produce section of your grocery store and opt for fruits and vegetables that are grown either in your home province, or in Canada. When you purchase packaged foods, choose those made in Canada over U.S. or imported foods. Look for recognized eco-labels and certification. Also, try foods made from small, local companies. Better still, visit a nearby farmers' market on weekends or sign up with a local community supported agriculture program to get produce direct from the grower. If you live in or are driving through a rural community, stop and buy food from roadside stands or at the end of a farmer's lane.

Why you're doing it

Because local and sustainable food has a lower environmental impact! These types of food both limit the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by food transportation, while ensuring that our natural resources are sustainable for generations to come. Plus, on top of the growing concerns over synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, we also need to consider pollution and the loss of wildlife. Let's all do our part to leave the planet a healthy place for future generations.

Not only should you consider the distance imported food travels before it reaches your plate, you should also remember the energy used to package, process, store and refrigerate the food to preserve it on its long journey.

You should also care about eating local and sustainable because:

You'll help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from storage and transportation
Local sustainable or organic food reduces the amount of chemical pesticides left on food, or that leak into our water supply
You are helping to support more sustainable farming practices. The farmer gets less of your food dollar when there has been travel, duty and distribution companies involved. When farmers get little for their foods, it encourages them to either sell off their land, or start using environmentally unfriendly practices to increase their yields.
You'll support habitat for wildlife

Tips to shop by

Buy local sustainable food when possible
Support fair trade
Look for labels
Choose products with less packaging

Feb 19, 2010

babyian

Me and my husband started by local meats years ago from the farmer'smarket, because it was actually cheaper and the food tasted better. After seeing and reading many damaging reports on the food industry and safety standards, we made the switch to only buying local produce as well. We also no longer buy boxed or ready to eat meals, as they are pricey, from godknows where, and are very unhealthy.

Feb 10, 2010

KajiMadoushi

Ironically, in Quebec they started a campaign to invite people to buy local food. The only problem is, living in Montreal where the supermarkets are full of a variety of products coming from the 4 sides of the planet, it's hard to distinguish which are local and which are not. We're trying to take the time to look at the label and find a "Locally grown" sign or something but can't take all day just to do the grocery...

Oct 11, 2009

barbara G

One of the things that I do to make sure I can eat locally as longinto the season as I can is to freeze the local produce I pick or purchase. I live in the co0untry but instead of growing my own fruits and vegetables I purchase them from local farmers and then can or freeze them. I find it easier to buy it by the basket or bushel and do them up in one day

Apr 28, 2009

Schmitty

I try to eat local foods as much as possible, but unfortunately our area is not big on farmer's markets or growing food to sell locally. I still try, however, and I learned this past year in geography that the products (especially meat, poultry, and fish) which are in our grocery stores come from ILOs (intensive livestock operations, where large groups of cattle are raised in a very small area) and aquaculture, and both of these operations produce meat/fish that is fairly unhealthy to consume and they both pose a serious threat to the environment in many other ways, especially regarding effects on wild species (this mainly applies to aquaculture).