Today food travels thousands of miles from the farm to the consumers. Why is this? Is it a positive or negative trend?

Nowadays, much of the

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production and processing occurs far away from where consumers live and buy groceries. While most people are accustomed to the variety of imported produce, very few of them are aware of issues

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as external environmental costs which originate from the amount of fossil fuel used to transport

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for long-distances There is no doubt that the Internet boom and the trend of globalization have exerted a great influence on the way that

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choices have been made. The development of online shopping has meant that the Internet has become a worldwide retail market. Exotic

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that were once only available to a few people can now be bought by those living in small towns, even at a lower price than local produce. With the increasing exposure to foreign

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culture, it is evident that ingredients for a meal are no longer confined to vegetables and meat from a local farmer’s market.

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, the vast distance that

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travels from plough to plate makes it vulnerable to the environment and unsustainable in the long run. Today, the term ‘

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miles’ which refers to the distance

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transports from where it is grown to where it is ultimately purchased or consumed is widely used when testing the environmental impact of

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consumption,

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as the carbon footprint of the

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.

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is because long-distance transport of

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by planes, trains, trucks, or ships all consume energy in large quantities and spew pollution that contributes to global warming, and the effects the pollution have on our health are reflected in high rates of asthma and other respiratory symptoms.

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, local produce is a much healthier and more environmentally sound alternative. Without the need of being packaged, shipped and

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delivered, local

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are able to preserve the nutrients to the greatest extent.

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, purchasing locally grown

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maintains local farmland, which in turn increases green and open space and

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promotes a healthy environment in the long term. In conclusion, despite the increasing availability of imported

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, I believe local

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will still be the mainstream

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source for a good reason.