How much does eating locally-produced food help the climate problem? What are the other potential environmental and social benefits of eating locally-grown/produced food? Do you have a food garden in your school or at home? If not, do you want one?
Home Grown >
Make your own produce
If you make your own produce your won't have to go and buy produce and then less produce will be getting moved around and sold.
Growing your own food doesn't only help the environment but your own health.
I agree with your comment. According to One Green Planet, the U.S puts " 10 kilo calories of fossil fuel energy into our food system for every one kilo-calorie of energy we get as food". If you have a garden and homegrown produce system at your home this number is likely to decrease the number of carbon emissions, lowering your (our) carbon footprint.
I also agree you are what you eat and if you eat healthy you are healthy. According to the University of New Hampshire home grown food is, "More Nutritious. When growing your own food, your diet is more diverse and healthy, packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants."
But it has to be less or equal to carbon emissions and the product you were to buy and not producing.
I 100% agree with Range8. According to Heidi Godman from Harvard Medical School, growing your own produce has a wide range of benefits. First of all, you can start eating healthier, with all the fresh produce you'd be growing, and you would also be in control of whether or not you want pesticides and chemicals on your food. On top of that, the article states that you can help give back to your community by donating fresh produce, helping the world be more sustainable, bit by bit.
Godman, Heidi. “Backyard Gardening: Grow Your Own Food, Improve Your Health.” Harvard Health Blog, 29 June 2012, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/backyard-gardening-grow-your-own-food-improve-your-health-201206294984.
I agree with Range8 and DFeldmanBOD3. From the research by the University of New Hampshire, growing your own produce has many benefits. To start, it can be more nutritious because you are in control of what you are eating and you don't have to listen to all the ads and busy noise of going to a grocery store or shopping online. Secondly, you save more money than going to a store and buying food and its actually better for the environment because you're preventing sales which prevent trucks and transportation for the food.
I agree with DFeldmanBOD3 but there are also lots environmental benefits to growing your own produce. According to Triangle Pest Control, "...these foods travel an average of 1,500+ miles before ever being consumed." These miles that produce have been traveling are on trucks that produce lots of carbon into the atmosphere. Growing your own produce, and also spreading the word to others will slowly reduce the our carbon footprint. To add on to that, lots of produce is shipped in man made plastics or cardboard according to the article.
Trianglepest. (n.d.). What are the environmental benefits of growing your own food? Retrieved March 16, 2020, from
Triangle pest control website:
https://www.trianglepest.com/blog/what- … r-own-food
In addition to what CSweeneyBOD4 said, buying local foods can strengthen your local economy too. Consuming organically grown food rather than greens with pesticides may also reduce your carbon footprint. The transportation of food accounts for about 11% of greenhouse gas emissions per person in the United States, according to Michigan State University.
References
https://www.canr.msu.edu/uploads/234/62936/Guide.pdf
I 100% agree that growing your own food is better for the environment mainly because of how much gas you use on a trip to the grocery store. According to Scientists from the University of New Hampshire, when you take into account the typical energy cost of transporting food to your local grocery store, it is estimated that an average distance of 1,500 miles is traveled before the food is consumed. This long-distance transportation of food heavily relies on the energy from burning fossil fuels. In fact, it is estimated that we currently put nearly 10 kilocalories of fossil fuel energy into our food system for every one kilo-calorie of energy we get as food. This makes our carbon footprints even bigger than they already are and growing your own food could save you money on gas and reduce your carbon footprint. Lastly, growing organic foods is also very good for your health.