Local Food and Climate Change: The Low Carbon Alternative
By Brad Masi

Most of us have become accustomed to the “global supermarket” – grocery-store shelves jammed with a seemingly infinite selection of prepackaged food – which creates an illusion of abundance and choice. However, lurking behind the colorful packaging is a product that relies on vast transportation and energy systems to get it onto the shelves. The systems needed to deliver food long distances are becoming increasingly costly to maintain. The farther food travels to us from its source, the more fossil energy is expended and the more carbon is released into the atmosphere, contributing to global-climate change. Considering the expenditure of energy it takes to support the modern industrial food system, a return to a local-food system could reduce the consequences of fossil fuel dependency. A low-carbon diet, as we might call it, would allow us to reduce our carbon footprint through making a few simple changes. In the process, we can enhance our neighborhoods and improve the urban environment, as well as create stronger rural and urban environments.

Consider this: A 2003 study by FoodShare in Toronto compared eight items available at a farmers' market during November to the same eight items at a supermarket down the street. The locally grown food from the farmers' market traveled an average of 63 miles compared to 3,353 miles for the supermarket foods. When comparing the carbon emissions from transporting these same foods, the local foods generated about 119 grams of carbon compared to 11,887 grams for the imported foods. In just one example, a lamb chop from New Zealand not only traveled 193 times farther than a lamb chop produced at a farm in Ontario, it generated more than 1,000 times the carbon because it was flown to the store in which it was sold.

A low-carbon diet concept also offers a way to change how we think of calories. David Pimentel at Cornell University estimated that it takes about 10 “calories” of fossil energy to put one calorie of food on our plates. About 70 percent of these “calories” are tied up in processing and transportation. Given that the average 500-calorie meal requires 5,000 calories of additional energy inputs, a low-carbon diet would significantly reduce the fossil-fuel calories expended to process, package and transport food for long-distance shipment.

In addition to benefitting the global environment, developing a local food system will enhance the quality of life in Northeast Ohio by converting vacant lots in cities into green space that supports urban agriculture. These urban farms can absorb carbon dioxide while greatly reducing the carbon emission of food shipped at a distance. This diversification of urban space can also support larger re-vitalization efforts. The late author Jane Jacobs, in her seminal book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, writes about “the need of cities for more intricate and close-grained diversity of uses that give each other constant mutual support, both economically and socially.” Beyond urban agriculture, cities can provide spaces for intermixing between urban and rural people.

Local agriculture is finding more ways to become blended into the very fabric of our cities. This new urban agrarianism creates a productive amalgamation of farmers and urban residents, which creates positive social, economical and ecological impacts. Here are some ways that Northeast Ohio cities are facilitating this urban and rural amalgamation and ultimately galvanizing the low-carbon diet:

• The City Fresh program has organized Fresh Stops in which residents purchase weekly shares from a network    of about 16 local farmers. Fresh Stops often are located in urban “food deserts” and include bilingual nutritional    information. (See story page 16 titled “Fighting the Food Desert Phenomenon.”)

• Half of the farmers supplying City Fresh are urban farmers who, over the past year, have been growing food on    vacant lots in the city – including some gardens built on asphalt – to provide food for local consumption. Many    urban farmers are youth who can use gardening to learn about natural cycles and entrepreneurship.

• Farmers' markets, where farmers can connect directly to customers, have grown from about four in the mid    1990s to more than 30 today in Northeast Ohio.

• Community supported agriculture provides a way for groups of residents to pool their dollars to support a local    farm by making advance payments in the form of shares in exchange for a supply of produce throughout the    growing season.

• Given that 41 cents out of every food dollar is spent eating out, restaurants and insti- tutions play a role in    supporting local farmers. At Oberlin College, student-run cooperatives and service manager Bon Appetite    together spend almost $900,000 annually to support local farmers, about 35 percent of the institutional food    budget.

• Urban areas and institutions generate large amounts of organic waste that can be used for agriculture. The    George Jones Farm in Oberlin, for example, uses food waste from college dining halls for composting and    waste grease for operating tractors and delivery vehicles, as well as heating greenhouses.

• Cities such as Cleveland are full of old manufacturing buildings that can be retro- fitted to process and preserve    foods for winter months. Old buildings currently are being used to support urban agricultural production such as    fish-farming, mushroom growing or vermiculture (using worms to process food waste).

• Local organic food farming reduces environmental impacts by eliminating the use of toxic chemicals that pollute    Lake Erie while also sequestering atmospheric carbon to address global warming.

The headlines report new evidence of the impact of climate change almost daily. We could each take a large bite out of our carbon impact by simply supporting local farms in Northeast Ohio, whether we live in the city or in the country. In the process, we would create greener cities, better urban and rural relations, healthier residents and a stronger regional economy. The low-carbon diet is much healthier and more appetizing than the alternatives.


Brad Masi is the executive director of the New Agrarian Center, based in Oberlin, Ohio. Masi is a graduate of Oberlin College and has a master's degree in urban studies from Cleveland State University. He works extensively on supporting local-food systems through writing, speaking, teaching and organizing. More information about the low-carbon diet and urban agrarianism can be found at www.GotTheNAC.org.