From E-magazine and article by Lindsey Blomberg:
1,500 miles. That’s the average number of miles it reportedly takes for your dinner to get from the farm to your table. Featured in Newsweek, TIME Magazine and The New York Times, this number has contributed to a growing local eating movement. Sales of locally grown foods are expected to reach $7 billion this year, up from $4 billion in 2002.
The number originated from a study called “Food, Fuel, and Freeways” conducted in 2001 by Rich Pirog, associate director at Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Pirog wanted to quantify how many miles it took 28 fruits and vegetables to reach the upper Midwest by truck. The number averaged close to 1,500 miles. When he did the study again in 2003, the results were largely the same. But Pirog had no idea he was generating what he calls a “magical number.” In fact, he was surprised his study’s results were coined for the masses, since they were so specific regarding food type and location. “We never expected the small food miles studies looking at fresh produce coming into the upper Midwest by truck to generate so much buzz. The average distance we calculated took on a life of its own and was often cited incorrectly as the average distance food traveled in the United States,” Pirog says.
To read the entire article, go to:
https://www.emagazine.com/magazine/by-the-numbers-food-miles/
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