How can i lower my food miles?

I guess i can make things from scratch but it still doesn't lower it much,
I sometimes go on my grandads allotment and help.
have you got any suggestions?

 

Well it all depends on where you are from i guess, sometimes local isn't best.

I can't really remember, but i think i read something like it takes less energy to ship some products over from spain to the uk than to grow them in greenhouses here.

Meh i can't remember. Great lot of use i am.


We always go to the monthly farmers market in town but i don't know if you have that where you are.

 

"Food not bombs" (http://www.foodnotbombs.net/) is something to consider. Here in Albuquerque we probably redistribute 1,000 lbs of food a week that would otherwise be wasted. We not only cook food, we also give away big tables of bulk food, and donate to several progressive local organizations and food banks) . In America, food travels over a thousand miles on average. It generally takes between 7-10 calories of fossil fuel energy to grow and distribute each calorie of food. It is kind of sad that 30-50% of food in America goes to waste. Food waste constitutes ~15% of the landfill which of course takes more energy to transport to the landfill, and then worse of all much of it is transformed to methane, which is 20 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Landfills are the largest human contributor to methane production. As a former microbiologist i can tell you that the major requirement for transforming organic material to methane in an anaerobic environment is water. Dry waste does not rot easily (hence long term storage by dehydration). Unfortunately waste food is relatively wet and not only does it rot, it probably "helps" the discarded paper rot. So whatever one can do to counter this whole wasteful process is beneficial. Plus all the food is free, and it is from organic stores, and it is hardly damaged at all: tiny smudges on containers, very ripe and more flavorful fruit, day old bread (who cares, poeple keep bread for weeks in their homes). It is true that we have some transportation costs of our own, but we have a veg-oil truck and a lot of bicycles. We use far less energy than the dump trucks which are filling the landfills which get farther and farther away.