Food Transportation

 Calista Honick

Food Transportation: from producer to consumer, this transportation accounts for 28% of the total energy use in the U.S.

    14% used by the U.S. food system

    5% used from personal grocery shopping trips

    9% used by distributing raw and processed foods

The demand for groceries in a supermarket that includes foods from all over the world leads to... costs such as carbon emissions due to the transportation, processing, packaging, and retailing of food products

Food Miles: the distance food travels before being consumed

    Trucks, trains, boats, and airplanes all rely on oil as a resource and consume fossil fuels. As these methods of transportation send large quantities of food around the world, they contribute even more to greenhouse gas emissions than they already are by transporting humans. 

Solutions

-Buying locally grown produce cuts the food miles a person consumes

-Purchasing produce that is in season increases the chance that it is grown closer to a person's hometown

-Edible landscapes: found in Central Florida, additional places to build and maintain garden bed installations and fruit trees to grow more local food and less lawns

-Fleet farming


Fleet Farming: converting underutilized lawn space into productive localized edible gardens or micro farms

As lawns are one of the largest sources of U.S. pollution, transforming these into sustainable farm plots with produce to send to local vendors can reduce negative environmental impacts. There are 40 million acres of grass lawns in America that absorb chemical fertilizers and pesticides. We can reduce this by helping the food transportation issue and growing more produce locally.


Elementary School Garden

provides fresh produce for 30 to 40 students with disabilities

(Catalina Elementary)



Community Garden

community members grow local healthy foods to provide fruits and vegetables for the residents, it also gives back to the pollinator by providing blooming flowers

(Callahan Oaks)




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