Science > Miles Per Bite

Miles Per Bite

How far your food travels

By Janey Duntley

Forget calorie counting when you eat—try carbon counting your next meal. In a world increasingly concerned with sustainability and global warming, the term “food miles” has emerged to refer to the total distance your food will travel from field to plate. The more miles your food travels to reach you, the more carbon dioxide emissions permeate the atmosphere.

Grapes shipped from Chile to Minneapolis markets travel roughly 7,500 miles.
By 2001, nearly 40 percent of all fresh fruits in the United States were imported. That’s almost 20 percent more than in 1970.
Each year, the average adult travels approximately 135 miles by car to buy groceries.
Air shipping is the fastest growing mode of food transport but it uses nearly 40 times the amount of fuel that sea transport does.
On average, almost 10 percent of our red meat is produced in foreign countries, including locations as far away as Australia.
A semi-truck transporting food consumes nearly 370,000 gallons of gas per year, emitting over 8 million pounds of carbon dioxide.
Of all the energy put into food, 14 percent is used for transport.
Rearing and transporting livestock generates more greenhouse gas emissions than personal transport—that’s 7.1 billion tons, or roughly 18 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere each year.
An average Minnesota household disposes more than 35 pounds of food and food packaging per week. With the removal of that waste, food emits greenhouse gases even after it’s been consumed.
On average, food travels 25 percent farther than it did two decades ago.