According to "Eat locally to nourish yourself and the environment", on Chopra Center, eating locally has many benefits to both yourself and the environment for several reasons. When food is brought locally, there are shorter transportation trips, meaning burning less fossil fuels (not traveling by ship, plane or truck). These local farmers also tend to use less fossil fuel when producing and manufacturing their food. Growing our own foods in our backyards is the best way to eat locally and prevent the most amount of carbon entering the atmosphere (mainly due to the proximity). According to Michael Pollan, "“It takes 56 calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver 1 calorie of food energy to your plate.” Other benefits of growing and buying locally is simply that the cost is much lower, because it's close, and it's generally better for your health (it's more fresh). I do not have a garden at home, but my grandpa does. He grows green beans, apples, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, plums, etc. At least twice a month he brings us whatever is in season from his garden and we make a  fresh salad. We also have the living lab at school where some vegetables are grown and served as soup during some lunches. I would love to have a garden at home to eat more fresh food because it makes me feel healthier and I feel like I'm helping the environment more.

I love your creative approach to reducing our carbon emission. I do see my neighbors' gardens in their yards and I find it inspiring, but what if some people do not have the same green thumb as others? Or, what if the area that they live in doesn't support and sustain a healthy garden. Are there different approaches to producing your own locally grown food?

I could not agree more with you. Eating locally definitely will help the environment become a cleaner place. It also will help us, the consumers, eat more natural or organic food. I agree with Katharine, a lot of my neighbors have gardens. I think it is really cool because they will bring us over tomatoes and many other things from their gardens. I do wonder, what would happen if everyone grew their own fruits and vegetables?  Everyone would have organic, home grown food. We would also have a decrease in transportation of food around to grocery stores and restaurants. Very interesting idea!!

I agree with all of your ideas. As Katharine said before, not all people live in an area that can support a garden or just don't have the space. My grandparents spend part of the year in New Mexico and the soil isn't fertile enough to grow vegetables, so my grandfather, instead of buying bags and bags of fertilizer, plants the seeds in hay bales. It has worked very well over the past few years, and as the plants grow, they break down the hay so disposing of used hay bales isn't an issue.
People that live in big cites like New York don't necessarily have enough space for a garden, so reducing the distance food has to travel may be answer. In the middle of cites, you can build a vertical farm. Vertical farms are multi-story buildings that use a hydroponic system and occasionally artificial light to grow crops. According to EcoWatch, they can grow food using less water, less soil, and producing less waste, leaving a smaller footprint on the environment than tradition al farming.  It may be a more efficient way of farming considering weather and natural disasters have no effect on the amount of crops that are produced, provided that the building isn't damaged.