Food production in southeast Minnesota uses much more energy per acre than the global average...
...although people across the food system are working to address this.
This statement was based on passages from "Opportunities for Leadership, Learning, and Impact"...
Currently, food travels approximately 1,500 miles from farm to fork. For example, a cut of meat purchased by a Minnesota consumer at a supermarket, even if raised by a Minnesota farmer, is likely to have been processed out of state and shipped back in.ii Roughly 17 percent of all energy used in the U.S. is devoted to bringing food to our tables, for a total cost nationally of more than $139 billion per year....and "Local Food: Where to Find It, How to Buy It."
If your lunch today was typical of most American meals, the food you ate traveled hundreds -- or even thousands -- of miles to get from the farmers that grew it to you. A lot of resources went into the refrigerating, processing, packaging, and transporting of that food. (p.2)It is also reflected in statements from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy...
We are working to stop the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture and aquaculture, while limiting the release of mercury and other toxic pollutants that fall onto farmland and enter the food supply. IATP is also monitoring the impact of genetically engineered crops on the environment, human health and farmer income....and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Not only does eating locally grown fruits and vegetables save fossil fuel, your food is fresher, tastes better, cost less, retains more nutrients plus support local farmers and keep dollars in your community… Current research is also showing both short- and long-term benefits to our population and the planet with organic and other sustainable production systems... Biodiversity is enhanced in organic agricultural systems, which makes these farms more resilient to unpredictable weather patterns and pest outbreaks...
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