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Anthony Flaccavento talks with local farmer, Robin Robbins. Photo credit: Anthony Flaccavento
Anthony Flaccavento farms in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and sells his organic produce in a local farmers market. He is concerned that people are disparaging local food lately, claiming that tractor-trailer loads are more efficient. He says they are wrong.
A full tractor-trailer hauls about 32,000 pounds of produce. On average...this food travels about 1,750 miles from farm to market, in trucks that get about 5.5 miles per gallon. That's 320 gallons of fuel to transport 32,000 pounds, or about a gallon of fuel for every 100 pounds of food.
My farm is an eight-mile round trip from the Abingdon farmers market. Our '94 Toyota pickup gets 15 miles to the gallon, fully loaded, so my trip to and from the market uses just over a half gallon of gas. We take and sell an average of 1,600 pounds of fresh produce every Saturday morning. This works out to 3,200 pounds of food for every gallon of fuel expended. That's 32 times more efficient.
He also notes that some say that people are driving further to farmers markets than they did when they went to the supermarket, burning more fuel. However he points out that with Wal-Mart taking over the grocery market, people are driving further for their groceries, whereas farmers markets are opening up everywhere and getting closer to consumers all the time. ::Washington Post
Difficulty Level: Easy
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