Eating locally grown organic foods is one of the smartest health moves you can make and comes with a bounty of benefits, from fresher foods to saving both money and the environment.
One 2007 study from the University of Alberta, Canada, determined that the transportation alone of organic produce actually causes an environmental impact large enough to cancel out its benefits. In the U.S., transportation emissions account for about 11 percent of the food system’s carbon footprint.
If you look, you’ll find that most of the organic fruit and vegetables in your local grocery store come from much farther away than your conventional produce. Organic mangoes, for example, are frequently shipped from Ecuador and Peru, whereas conventional mangoes tend to come from Mexico. Fresh produce in most regions of the U.S. travel between 1,500 to 2,000 miles on the road! That’s even higher than processed foods that travel an average of 1,346 miles.