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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
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- From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
- To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org, nmgreens@yahoogroups.com
- Cc:
- Subject: [Livingontheland] Report from Leopold Center
- Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 11:57:04 -0600
LEOPOLD CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
>7-21-03
>
>Contacts: Rich Pirog (515) 294-1854, rspirog@iastate.edu, or Laura
>Miller,
>(515) 294-5272
>
>LOCALLY GROWN FOOD: TASTES GREAT ? AND LESS MILEAGE
>
>AMES, Iowa -- A new report from the Leopold Center for Sustainable
>Agriculture shows that locally grown produce traveled an average of 56
>miles from farm to point of sale, while the same types of produce from
>conventional sources within the United States traveled an average of 1,494
>miles ? nearly 27 times farther ? to reach the same points of sale.
>
>Leopold Center Marketing and Food Systems Program Leader Rich Pirog and
>Iowa State University student Andrew Benjamin looked at produce sales
>transactions to institutions that participated in an ?All-Iowa meal?
>brokering project coordinated by Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI). The data
>represented fresh fruits and vegetables from 34 Iowa farms sold in 2001 to
>23 conference centers, hotels and other institutions in central Iowa.
>
>?We wanted to know how the miles logged by Iowa fresh produce arriving
>at
>institutions compared to miles logged had this produce come from more
>conventional locations across the country,? Pirog noted. ?We used the PFI
>data set and what we knew about fresh produce commerce in the Midwest to
>make our comparisons.?
>
>Their comparisons showed that mileage also varied widely by produce
>type.
>Conventionally sourced broccoli traveled more than 90 times farther than
>its local counterparts, and carrots and sweet corn more than 70 times
farther.
>
>Using a formula representing both distance and weight of the load
>transported, Pirog and Benjamin calculated a weighted average source
>distance, or the ?food miles? for each of 16 produce types in the
>PFI-brokered sales data. The pair then examined 1998 records for these 16
>produce items arriving at the Chicago and St. Louis terminal produce
>markets, and current national produce shipment data to determine which
>states in the continental United States supply the upper Midwest with 50
>percent or more of the produce. They used this information to calculate
>food miles for the produce items in a conventional system, substituting
>the weights and points of sale for the PFI produce transactions so that
>comparisons could be made with the locally grown food miles.
>
>Within the conventional data set pumpkins, cabbage and potatoes
>traveled
>the fewest miles, between 8 and 15 times farther than their local
>counterparts. Pirog and Benjamin also found that the sum of the food miles
>to supply the 16 fruits and vegetables from local sources was 715 miles,
>about the distance from Des Moines to Denver. The sum of the food miles
>for the conventional produce was 25,301 miles, roughly a trip that would
>circle the earth pole to pole starting and ending in Des Moines, plus 440
>additional miles north to the Canadian border.
>
>?We?re now researching how best to communicate the food miles concept
>to
>consumers who want local food but also demand freshness, taste and
>quality,? Pirog added.
>
>For a copy of the report, ?Checking the food odometer: Comparing food
>miles for local versus conventional produce sales to Iowa institutions,?
>contact the Leopold Center at (515) 294-3711, or go to the Center?s web
>site: www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubinfo/papersspeeches/food_travel072103.pdf
>
>Through its research and education programs, the Leopold Center
>supports
>the development of profitable farming systems that conserve natural
>resources. Center funding comes from state appropriations and from fees on
>nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides, as established by the 1987 Iowa
>Groundwater Protection Act.
>#
>EDITOR'S NOTE: A chart showing the comparisons is available as a PDF on
>the Leopold Center web site:
><http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/images/FOOD_CHART.pdf>http://www.leopold.ia
state.edu/images/FOOD_CHART.pdf
>
>-------
>LeopoldUpdates is an electronic listserv for people in the sustainable
>agriculture community who would like to receive occasional press releases
>and announcements from the Leopold Center. If you would like to add or
>change an address, or be removed from this list, please contact Laura
>Miller, lwmiller@iastate.edu.
>------
>Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
>Iowa State University/209 Curtiss Hall
>Ames, IA 50011-1050
>(515) 294-3711; FAX: (515) 294-9696
>All news releases also are posted on our web site:
><http://www.leopold.iastate.edu>http://www.leopold.iastate.edu
- [Livingontheland] Report from Leopold Center, Tradingpost, 07/28/2003
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