Keeping it local for a green Thanksgiving

Here's one small thing you can do to reduce your "carbon footprint" this month: Buy locally grown food for Thanksgiving dinner.

But it would be better if you walked to the grocery store, too.

Flanked by a rusted pickup overflowing with chard, beets, squash and greens at Pike Place Market, King County Executive Ron Sims signed a pledge Friday to buy at least one local ingredient for Thanksgiving.

Others can sign the pledge online or return cards that will be passed out in grocery stores, at farmers markets and by other businesses throughout the county.

"We want to continue to grow and stimulate our local agricultural industry, to eat really, really fresh foods, and on top of that reduce our impact on global warming," Sims said. "The difference is huge."

University of Washington researchers have compared greenhouse gas emissions from a plate of wild Alaskan salmon and Washington-grown produce with its imported counterparts.

They found that the local plate saves 2 pounds of carbon emissions compared with the same meal made with New Zealand apples, Peruvian asparagus, Idaho potatoes and farm-raised Norwegian salmon.

But the study, done last year, also noted that driving a few miles to a farmers market would wipe out the environmental benefits.

From a climate-change perspective, the distance the food traveled was often a less important factor than fuels and fertilizers used on the farm and how productive the land is. Just counting "food miles" -- or how far away something is grown -- is too simplistic, said Branden Born of the UW Department of Urban Design and Planning, who oversaw the study.

Transportation typically accounts for only about 11 percent of climate-altering emissions associated with food, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison research.

At least one grocery is starting to think about providing "cradle-to-grave" carbon footprints of their ingredients, Born said, which would account for the energy and fuels used in producing and processing.

"That's the next wave," he said. "Suddenly they're seeing that consumers are asking for more information to make better decisions."

For instance, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with a New Zealand apple shipped across the ocean were double those of a Washington apple. But emissions from conventionally-grown local asparagus weren't much different from asparagus imported from Peru, because of nitrogen-rich fertilizers used and Washington's shorter growing season.

In that case, the study found a much bigger difference between organic and conventionally grown products.

And emissions associated with salmon -- whether from the diesel-powered fishing boats used to catch a wild Copper River salmon or the energy used to produce feed for the Norwegian farmed variety -- dwarfed the fruits and vegetables entirely.

But speakers at the Market on Friday made other arguments -- aside from global warming -- for buying local food, including bolstering the local economy and preserving farmland in King County that hasn't been paved over.

Groups from across the food spectrum -- farmers, grocers, emergency food providers, organic gardeners -- are beginning to lobby for local, state and national policies that could help in that effort.

"For now, what we're asking people to do is put something local on your plate, but the broader systemic issues are going to require local governments to be actively engaged if we're going to make progress," said Tammy Morales, a member of the Acting Food Policy Council of Seattle and King County, which formed last year.

That could include, for instance, policies specifying that caterers for city or county functions use local produce, or developing food-related business incubators in neighborhood service centers.

Local governments could offer loans to farmers to start using vegetable-based, less-polluting fuels in tractors or trucks, Born said. Waiving fees for farmers markets, and finding permanent locations for ones that are threatened by development, should be a priority, he said.

Because Washington is such an agriculturally productive region, consumers here are pretty safe in assuming that locally grown food has a smaller carbon footprint, Born said.

But if someone's chief concern is freshness, lettuce that was refrigerated the moment it was picked in California and shipped by semi-trailer might be better than greens from a Yakima farmer who let it wilt in the sun in a pickup bed for two hours, he said.

People ought to consider what issues they're really concerned about -- whether it's climate change, pesticide use, food safety or nutrition -- and try to buy accordingly. Asking grocers for better information is a good start, he said.

"It's tough to beat a little organic farmer in Carnation -- that's going to be a winner every time," he said. "But I'm really uncomfortable with just a 'buy local' response -- you have to ask what it is you want from your food."

FARMED OUT

Why is it so hard to get locally grown food into schools, hospitals and other facilities? Read the P-I series at seattlepi.com/specials/farmtoschool.

EAT LOCAL

To take the Eat Local for Thanksgiving pledge -- and possibly win a heritage turkey -- visit pugetsoundfresh.org/eatlocal.

To see the full UW greenhouse gas study, visit here.