When it comes to food, we tend to focus on the environmental impact of it, the transportation that goes along with it, and our impact on the planet, but most of all, our consumption habits. This is especially true of “food miles,” or the distance that a given food item travels from its point of origin to its final destination, which is the basis for many environmental and food laws and regulations.
Food miles are the distances food travels. The number of miles that food travels is important to know. Food mile numbers are especially important to know for people like students and commuters as these people are responsible for preparing food for their families and are therefore responsible for transporting large amounts of food.
This is true and it’s why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created the Environmental Food Impact Database (E-FOID) to track food produced and transported. This database lists the “food miles” that a product travels on public roads and highway systems, as well as any environmental impact that the product has on the environment and the consumer. The E-FOID will allow consumers to make informed food purchasing decisions, especially for foods that contain environmental toxins.
In the past, the average American consumed about 40 million pounds of food per year. But according to research published in the journal Nature Communications, it was all but a distant memory by 2040. The study estimates that by 2040, we will eat an additional 1.1 billion pounds of food, and that the world’s average footprint will increase by about 17 percent.
It can be a challenge to track all the food that we eat and the environmental impact of all those trips, but a decrease in the number of food miles we currently take can have a huge impact on the environmental impact of food we consume. According to an article in the New York Times, the “more miles we travel to get a certain food, the more we’re impacting the environment.
The problem is that Americans travel nearly two billion miles a year on food, and we waste nearly 70% of that food miles. That’s right. We waste 70% of the food miles on airplanes, and we can expect to waste more than 90% within the next 20 years. This isn’t to say that we need to just rely on the airlines. Many people find that shopping for groceries at airport stores is one of the most challenging places to shop for food.
Food miles are a food’s distance traveled by road or train without it consumed. Food miles are also known as a food’s “food miles.” Some foods are actually better to eat in places with fewer food miles because they have less pesticide residue. For instance, strawberries would be a better choice when it comes to food miles than bananas, but the same can be said for most other fruits and vegetables.
Food is about to get even more environmentally friendly and it’s all thanks to a method called “food miles.” This new metric is being used by companies that use the same food to serve people in cities across the country. The idea is that if you eat a certain food, you have less food miles. That means that if you eat steak, you can actually save money on paper towels.
