Stephen Budiansky writes that locavores are wrong to worry so much about how far our food travels when the “real energy hog” is you and me: “Home preparation and storage account for 32 percent of all energy use in our food system, the largest component by far.” This may be true, but the lion’s share of the food system’s energy use comes from six other elements of the food chain, precisely the sectors locavores are trying to avoid.
A recent Department of Agriculture study reported that 28 percent of food energy use comes from households while much of the rest — 57.6 percent — comes from the processing, packaging, transportation, wholesale and retail, and food service energy use that locavores are seeking to avoid.
A real locavore cares about all of these steps.
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