Reducing Food Miles

Every meal has a story. But few of us pause to wonder how far that story has travelled before reaching our plates. The tomatoes in a salad, the rice on a steaming platter, the coffee in a morning cup, each may have journeyed thousands of kilometres across states or even continents. That journey, while invisible to the eye, leaves behind a trail of carbon, a footprint that tells the tale of how our choices connect with the climate.

When food travels long distances, often called food miles, the transportation process burns fossil fuels. Planes, ships, lorries, and trains together form a vast global web of movement that makes modern diets possible. While it feels convenient to have kiwis in summer or apples in monsoon, the energy cost of refrigeration, packaging, and shipping is immense. A single air-freighted mango from another hemisphere can carry more carbon weight than the fruit itself. And, I am not talking about agricultural practices here that further use up fossil fuels.

It is said that on an average for every single calorie of food energy that appears on our plate, about ten calories of fossil fuel energy are spent to grow, process, package, and transport it. This imbalance is striking. The energy we consume in a meal is only a fraction of what has already been burned to make that meal possible. And that figure is a global average. If we add the fashionable foods that travel great distances, the situation becomes far worse..

The irony is that much of what we import can often be grown closer to home. Local produce, especially when cultivated through sustainable or organic means, arrives fresher and carries a far lighter environmental burden. Supporting local farmers not only preserves traditional crops and livelihoods but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions that result from long-distance logistics. The local vegetables and fruits may not look very beautiful always (since it is not grown to be exported) but usually it is much more nutritious. For my family and friends, I prefer to grow or buy from local markets whatever is available in our region. Locally grown fruits such as apples, pears, peaches, guavas, and papayas make far more sense than avocados, bananas, imported apples, or pineapples. Nuts like walnuts and chestnuts from nearby farms are much more sustainable than cashews or Californian pecans. The same applies to vegetables, lentils, grains, and meats. Freshwater fish from local rivers and lakes are better choices than seafood that has travelled thousands of kilometres.

When guests at my place ask for South Indian dishes or seafood, I smile and gently explain that we are located in the northern part of India, far from the sea. In fact, as the crow flies, China is closer to us than the nearest Indian shoreline.

It is easy to underestimate how far the web stretches. A restaurant salad might contain lettuce from the hills, olives from Spain, and cheese from Italy. Each ingredient carries its own hidden emissions from the fields where it was grown to the factories where it was processed and the warehouses where it was stored. By the time it reaches your fork, it may have emitted more carbon than an entire day’s electricity use at home.

Choosing local food is not about isolation; it is about balance. It is about rethinking what “fresh” means, not something wrapped tightly in plastic and flown overnight, but something that has grown in the same air you breathe. When we align our diets with the rhythm of our land and its seasons, we not only lower our carbon footprint but also rediscover the rich diversity of our own region. Few years back, I used to enjoy mangoes and watermelons in the peak of summers, now even in winters I see watermelons that have flown all the way from equator. Bananas, green or ripe, are now available round the year, but at what cost to the environment?

The same holds true for water. Drinking from local mountain streams carries no carbon guilt, while bottled water has its own carbon miles attached to it. To make matters worse, microplastics in bottled water and the disposal of empty bottles add further environmental cost.

Our food here may taste different, but it is delicious, nutritious, and perfectly suited to this region. Lentils like Bhatt and Gehat, combined with locally grown rice and millets, and cooked in traditional ways are flavourful. Local meats make wholesome and mouth-watering dishes. One simply needs to be open to experiencing the cuisine that belongs to this land.

Next time you sit down to eat, ask quietly, how far has my food travelled? The answer might surprise you. In that awareness lies the first step toward a more sustainable and more rooted way of eating, one where nourishment extends beyond the body to include the earth itself.

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