So what is Blog Action Day? Well it is over 20,000 bloggers who have registered their published blogs with the web site blogactionday.org and in so doing have committed to blogging about the environment in unison on the same day.  So what does someone who blogs about sustainable food write about the environment?   Food miles or Buying Locally of course!

Okay so what are food miles?  Food miles refers to the distance food travels from its source to your plate.  It is one variable in the assessment of the environmental impact of food, how that food travels to your plate should also be considered.  So food travels an average 1,500 miles from the field or processing plant to you.  Consider the fuel necessary to transport that food to your home and its impact on the environment.  And don't be fooled by organic foods.  Just because they're organic doesn't mean they haven't travelled and therefore not impacting the environment.  Think of an northeastern family eating frozen organic peaches by growers Cascadian Farm.  Those organic peaches have now travelled well over 2,500 miles from the state of Washington.  Add in the round trip by car to the market to purchase them and you have added a few more miles and foreign fuel.

The term food miles is a first cousin to locavore or someone who lives their life eating food grown or produced within 100 miles of where they live. This is also where the now familiar term Buy Local fits in to the discussion.  Locavores prefer to buy from farmers or producers they know and they prefer to walk, bike or use public transportation to shop (and work).

Another important reason to consider buying locally is the freshness, ripeness and nutritional quality of foods picked and eaten on the same day. Foods that have spent up to a week travelling by truck, freighter and in planes will quickly lose nutritional value. 

Finally, consider all the packaging necessary to secure food for long periods of time.  How much of that packaging do you think can be recycled?

For more information about the locavore movement click on the links below:

Locavore

The Case for Local Food in A Global Market

In Search of the Ripe Stuff

100-Mile Diet

Eat Seasonal