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Are you ready for a real shocker? Americans put almost the same amount of fossil fuels into our kitchens as into our cars. In fact, it takes about 400 gallons of oil per person a year to grow, raise and transport our food. 

How can that be? A small portion is used to fuel the farming equipment, and about a quarter goes toward petroleum-based synthetic fertilizers. However, the lion’s share of that annual energy figure is used to transport the food from the farm to your plate. In fact, when the average North American sits down to eat; each ingredient has typically traveled at least 1,500 miles. The distance food travels is known as “food miles” and is one dimension used in assessing the environmental impact of food. 

Energy calories consumed by producing, packaging and shipping our food far outweighs the energy calories we receive from it. In fact, North Americans use an average of ten calories of fossil fuel to produce one calorie of food energy. Producing animal protein takes eight times as much fossil fuel as producing the plant protein equivalent. What’s more, raising animals for food generates more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, trains, ships, and planes in the world combined; in fact, 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock.

If a meatless diet isn’t for you, you can make a big difference just by eating a little less meat. According to Environmental Defense, if every American had one meat-free meal per week, it would be the same as taking more than five million cars off our roads.

So what can you do? Shop at the farmers market and eat locally grown food as much as possible. Try and eat lower on the food chain by consuming less meat and dairy. Challenge yourself to eat one completely local meal a week and eat meat one less meal a week. Read more in our food resources page and we’ll give you a token worth $1 at the Farmers Market. Just come to the Santa Barbara Downtown Farmers Market on Saturday, August 23 and the first 100 visitors to CEC's booth can claim their token! You'll also have the opportunity to ride the Human Powered Generator (HPG)--an educational tool that allows people to 'feel' how much energy it takes to transport food.

References
Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver, Animal Vegetable Miracle pg. 5 
How Oily is Your Food?, Dave Steele
Livestock's Long Shadow, a United Nations Report 
100MileDiet.org