Local food always has a lower carbon footprint
Food transport is a minor fraction of lifecycle emissions for most foods. Agricultural production (land use, livestock, fertilizers) accounts for over 80 percent. Locally produced beef has a much larger carbon footprint than imported vegetables.
What we know
The food miles concept - that the distance food travels determines its environmental impact - is appealing but misleading for most products. A 2008 study by Weber and Matthews in Environmental Science and Technology found that transportation accounted for only 11 percent of U.S. household food emissions, with farm-to-retail transport representing just 4 percent. Production stage emissions (land use, animal digestion, fertilizers) accounted for 83 percent.
Our World in Data's analysis of food lifecycle data makes this concrete: beef from a beef herd has a footprint of about 60 kg CO2-equivalent per kilogram. Transport over 9,000 km by ship adds about 0.2 kg CO2-eq per kg - 0.35 percent of the total. Buying locally grown beef instead of imported beef saves almost nothing on carbon. Meanwhile, substituting plant-based foods for red meat and dairy just one day per week saves more CO2 than sourcing every food locally.
There are exceptions. Foods transported by air freight - such as some exotic fruits, fresh flowers, and out-of-season berries - carry very high transport emissions because air freight emits 50 times more per tonne-kilometer than shipping by sea. Avoiding air-freighted products is genuinely impactful. And local food systems can have other benefits: supporting local agriculture, reducing packaging, freshness, and community connection. But the automatic equation of local with low-carbon is not supported by lifecycle data for most foods.
Common claims
- Buying local food significantly reduces your carbon footprintFalse for most foods - transport is a minor share of emissions
- Local beef has a lower carbon footprint than imported vegetablesFalse - what you eat matters far more than where it comes from
- Air-freighted foods have high transport emissionsTrue - the main exception where transport significantly affects footprint