Today, food travels thousands of miles from farms before it reaches consumers in urban areas. Why is this the case? Is this a positive or negative trend?

It is true that, nowadays, because of the rural location of farms, the time expense for food delivery turns out to be longer than in previous times. The main reason for it might be that farmers prefer to pay less money on land. I would argue that it is a good trend for them to save on initial costs and

then

ensure their working profits;

while

as a consumer, I doubt that fewer fresh groceries would reach us and more money should be spent on distribution if the farms are located

further

away than before. There are various reasons why the transportation time of farmed goods has increased compared to the past.

Firstly

, it is the consequences of urbanization in recent decades, which has led to the fact that the expenses of urban land for farming have increased dramatically,

thus

directly decreasing the benefit that farmers can obtain for a living.

For example

, those who earn a living in rural areas would receive higher profits than that in the GTA areas.

Also

,

due to

larger cities, natural spaces are limited for plantings, contributing to the lower quality of necessary natural supplies.

For instance

, fewer green plantings in New York than that in any city in Ohio state. In my view, it is a good trend for landlords to move to rural places, as being able to farm and plant in a larger natural environment that can provide dairy and veggie supplies with high quality and full nutrition.

However

, as a consumer, I am not sure if the longer time cost of travel could affect the quality of the groceries delivered to us.

Besides

, increased complexity in food delivery to faraway destinations could result in the inflation of groceries, leading to climbing life expenses on bare necessities. An obvious example is that inflation rate increases are majorly influenced by the supply chain issues caused by the pandemic.

To conclude

, if food travels from long-distance origins, farms would spend less on the cost and ensure the income they expect,

however

, customers might need to afford money for the distribution and receive less qualified and fresh supplies than before.