Tabitha writes that “The main factors which go into how sustainable and environmentally friendly a food item is are the transport and storage of that item”. No, far from it! Both studies cited by Tabitha show otherwise, with the most recent one (the biggest study on worldwide agricultural impacts ever conducted) showing that “The greatest changes in the effect of a person’s diet on the planet comes from choosing certain kinds of food over others”, with plant food having the lowest and animal products having the largest impacts · https://www.sciencenews.org/article/plant-based-diets-greenhouse-gases-environment.

Here is some more evidence:

· Science Daily, 2018: For a lower climate footrprint, vegetarian diet beats local https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181023110627.htm

. From Healthy and Sustainable Diets for European Countries. (https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8521128/file/8521129)

“There is no scientific evidence that local food production is superior to non-local food in terms of its impact on either climate or health”

· From a US study https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170621082745.htm

“In this study, localisation does not improve sustainability much. What matters most is reducing meat and dairy consumption”.

· Article by Jonathan Foley, environmental scientist https://globalecoguy.org/local-food-is-great-but-can-it-go-too-far-ba686abe2ab7

“The commonly-held belief that reducing “food miles” is always good for the environment turns out to be a red herring. Local food uses about the same amount of energy — per pound — to transport as long-distance food.

It turns out that “food miles” aren’t a very big source of CO2 emissions anyway, whether they’re local or not. In fact, they pale in comparison to emissions from deforestation, methane from cattle and rice fields, and nitrous oxide from over-fertilized fields”.

· From Sierra Club (major environmental organisastion) http://www.sierraclub.org/rocky-mountain-chapter/blog/2016/10/help-environment-don-t-just-eat-local-eat-smart

“To help the environment, don’t just eat local. Eating food that is produced locally is great. It helps build a community, supports the local economy, and maybe even tastes better. Unfortunately, it does little to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the food supply chain”.

· Article in the New York times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/03/upshot/what-you-can-do-about-climate-change.html

“You’re better off eating vegetables from Argentina than red meat from a local farm”.

· Study: Does eating local food reduce the environmental impact of food production and enhance consumer health? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20696093

“This review of evidence does not offer any support for claims that local food is universally superior to non-local food in terms of its impact on the climate or the health of consumers. Indeed several examples demonstrate that local food can be inferior to non-local food.

(…) A qualitative assessment suggests the emissions per item of food would probably be greater under a scenario of self-sufficiency in the UK than under the current food system”.

· Study: Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the US. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18546681

“Transport from producer to retail contributes only 4% of food’s greenhouse gas emissions. Dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household’s food-related climate footprint than ‘buying local’. Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food”.

· Helping Consumers Understand The Climate Impact Of Food.https://faunalytics.org/feature-article/helping-consumers-understand-climate-impact-food/ and Consumers’ climate-impact estimations of different food products http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652616320029?np=y

Participants to the survey underestimated the climate impact of beef and cheese as well as organic and local products; they overestimated the impact of country of origin.

· Why we need an Earth-friendly diet. Take Extinction of your Plate. Centre for Biological Diversity. http://www.takeextinctionoffyourplate.com/earth-friendly_diet.html

“While there are a lot of important reasons to support local agriculture, replacing meat one day per week with a plant-based meal saves more greenhouse gas emissions than eating an entirely local diet.”