Groups urge watching food miles on Turkey Day

[Robin Garr]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

<B>Call For Fewer Food Miles on Local Thanksgiving Tables</B>

WHO: The Louisville Climate Action Network, Community Farm Alliance, Grasshoppers, Sierra Club (Cumberland Chapter), Ralph and Kathy Packard of Misty Meadows Farm and other local farmers.

WHAT: Farmers' market and presentation of locally-raised turkeys and produce for reducing the "food miles" on our Thanksgiving tables.

WHEN: Thursday, November 15th, at 4PM

WHERE: Site of the Bardstown Rd Farmers' Market, next to Bardstown Rd Presbyterian Church, 1722 Bardstown Rd (at Deer Park Avenue)

WHY: From the Pilgrims and Wampanoag in 1620 to modern-day Louisvillians, Thanksgiving is when family, friends and neighbors gather to celebrate the product of their cooperation in overcoming environmental challenges and to share the bounty of the Earth.

The above citizen groups encourage consumers to honor Thanksgiving tradition by reconnecting to our farming neighbors and putting more local food on their tables. A list of where local food, including turkeys, can be purchased will be available.

"There are easy ways to cut the food miles on your Thanksgiving table. Look for the "Kentucky Proud" sign in your local grocery. Shop at local farmers' markets. Buy a locally-raised turkey. Plan meals around the local fall harvest of pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes and greens." Avery H. Kolers, Louisville CAN

Nothing desecrates the spirit of Thanksgiving like a force-fed industrial turkey shot full of hormones and antibiotics. Factory farming pollutes our streams and impoverishes local farmers. The fossil fuels required to ship food from faraway fields worsens climate change. Conversely, there's no more hopeful symbol of a genuine Thanksgiving than a natural turkey, brought to you by the farm family that raised it.

Thanksgiving is an opportunity to merge our values and food choices, to promote a new vision for American agriculture and the world.

You must listen to a piece by Stephanie Sanders at WFPL on this topic that was aired last evening and this morning. I'm trying to find a link to it.

She "did the math" on fuel used for 108 farmers driving 100 miles roundtrip to B'town Road farmers market each with 100 heads of lettuce vs the same number of lettuce heads (truck filled to capacity) coming from California on a semi-trailer truck. The truck used 42% of the fuel that the farmers would use.

I haven't checked the arithmetic, but if it's true, it's a compelling argument that the feel-good food miles issue is questionable in terms of fuel use and, if you like, the "carbon footprint". The WFPL piece was well-balanced in that it acknowledged that other factors might go into the equation. Basically, the conclusion on the food miles issue was "the jury is still out".

Jay I heard parts of that piece too. It made me stop and go "hmmmm."

[Robin Garr]

Basically, the conclusion on the food miles issue was "the jury is still out".

That's pretty much the serious position I took in the mostly tongue-in-cheek Food Miles Dinner story in last week's LEO Dining Guide.

That being said, there are other good arguments in favor of buying locally, and they range from freshness to the greater likelihood that you're buying produce that may be tasty heirloom varieties and probably has undergone much less chemical treatment and processing between farm and market. And you're supporting a local producer and keeping your money in the regional economy. "Eat locally" is not JUST about carbon footprint, although intuitively, I've also got my doubts that the numbers you cite would really hold up upon close inspection. It takes an *awful* lot of trips from Corydon or Shelbyville to the Higlands to make up for one run from Monterey to Louisville; and an awful lot of pickem-up trucks to use as much fuel as one semi.

You must listen to a piece by Stephanie Sanders at WFPL on this topic that was aired last evening and this morning. I'm trying to find a link to it.

She "did the math" on fuel used for 108 farmers driving 100 miles roundtrip to B'town Road farmers market each with 100 heads of lettuce vs the same number of lettuce heads (truck filled to capacity) coming from California on a semi-trailer truck. The truck used 42% of the fuel that the farmers would use.

I haven't checked the arithmetic, but if it's true, it's a compelling argument that the feel-good food miles issue is questionable in terms of fuel use and, if you like, the "carbon footprint". The WFPL piece was well-balanced in that it acknowledged that other factors might go into the equation. Basically, the conclusion on the food miles issue was "the jury is still out".

From a statistical analysis perspective, the comparison that she chose to make in order to make her point is so fundamentally flawed that it is meaningless. I'm not saying she is wrong, but she used a very flawed and self-serving methodology.

From a statistical analysis perspective, the comparison that she chose to make in order to make her point is so fundamentally flawed that it is meaningless. I'm not saying she is wrong, but she used a very flawed and self-serving methodology.

You'll have to listen to the piece if I can find it. It was not at all self-serving. In fact I thought it was balanced and, as I said, concluded that more evidence is needed. Perhaps I gave the impression it was one-sided based on the part I chose to focus on.

I'm no statistician but I don't see her "lettuce" example as fundamentally flawed at all. Her assumptions and the way she analyzed the numbers seemed very logical. She acknowledged there might be more to it and further research is needed. But I always appreciate someone backing up claims with a little logic. One other item to consider in her analysis is the additional fuel to get the lettuce from the a central point where the semi drops it to retail outlets.

And, I fully understand the benefits of buying local, including freshness, supporting your neighbor and others Robin cites, but as Leah said, the report made me think about the "carbon footprint" thing.

From a statistical analysis perspective, the comparison that she chose to make in order to make her point is so fundamentally flawed that it is meaningless. I'm not saying she is wrong, but she used a very flawed and self-serving methodology.

You'll have to listen to the piece if I can find it. It was not at all self-serving. In fact I thought it was balanced and, as I said, concluded that more evidence is needed. Perhaps I gave the impression it was one-sided based on the part I chose to focus on.

I'm no statistician but I don't see her "lettuce" example as fundamentally flawed at all. Her assumptions and the way she analyzed the numbers seemed very logical. She acknowledged there might be more to it and further research is needed. But I always appreciate someone backing up claims with a little logic. One other item to consider in her analysis is the additional fuel to get the lettuce from the a central point where the semi drops it to retail outlets.

And, I fully understand the benefits of buying local, including freshness, supporting your neighbor and others Robin cites, but as Leah said, the report made me think about the "carbon footprint" thing.

forget I said "self-serving", poor choice of words. I don't have a personal opinion on the whol carbon footprint issue. I saw one study that shows that a Prius has a bigger footprint than a Hummer. I dunno?

the main problem with her model, among many, is that many assumptions are made that cannot be proven as true. we don't have 108 vendors coming to the farmers market who all bring the same product. if that was true, of course that would make it no more eco-friendly than a semi truck carrying lettuce all the way across the country.

When I first saw something about "food miles", my immediate thought was to find a way to squeeze bananas and kangaroo to my T-day feast.

It's just another way to take away others enjoyment for a holiday so that someone else can artificially feel good.

When I first saw something about "food miles", my immediate thought was to find a way to squeeze bananas and kangaroo to my T-day feast.

It's just another way to take away others enjoyment for a holiday so that someone else can artificially feel good.

Just like all the killjoys who insist on reminding us that the chimera of the "Old South" had something to do with the brutality of slave labor.

Gee, can't anyone hold outdated and discredited beliefs any longer without being challenged?

---

"You can lead a person to quasi-education, but you can't make him think." ... The Potable Curmudgeon

Let me know if this link doesn't work (l probably don't know how to do this)
http://archive.wfpl.org/environment/food_miles.mp3

It's just another way to take away others enjoyment for a holiday so that someone else can artificially feel good.

Little known fact that this is a direct quote from the mission statement of the Community Farm Alliance. Turns out that the group is not actually comprised of farmers but a bunch of cynical killjoys out to destroy everything that is good and wholesome.