WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE . USA

A study conducted by the Worldwatch Institute has found that distances between the sources and destinations of food in the US and elsewhere in the world has grown by as much as 25 per cent. Researchers fear this reliance on a complex network could leave many nations vulnerable to transit disruptions.

The Worldwatch Institute is a Washington DC-based environmental and social policy research group.

"The farther we ship food, the more vulnerable our food system becomes," Worldwatch research associate Brian Halweil said, "Many major cities in the US have a limited supply of food on hand. That makes those cities highly vulnerable to anything that suddenly restricts transportation, such as shortages or terrorism."

This long-distance food market also damages rural economies, as local farmers get marginalized. It also creates opportunities for contamination, and requires high usage of preservatives and artificial additives.

The high amount of fuel used in transportation leads to global warming. The Worldwatch report shows that a typical meal bought at a supermarket in the US uses up four to 17 times more petroleum in transportation than the same meal would if only local ingredients were used.

"A head of lettuce grown in the Salinas Valley of California and shipped nearly 3,000 miles to Washington DC, requires about 36 times as much fossil fuel energy in transport as it provides in food energy when it arrives," Halweil said.

Economists believe a global food market enables communities to buy food from the lowest cost provider, but studies have shown that farm communities benefit very little, and in fact often suffer.

"The economic benefits of food trade are a myth," said Halweil. "The big winners are agribusiness monopolies that ship, trade, and process food. Agricultural policies tend to favour factory farms, giant supermarkets, and long distance trade, and subsidized fuels encourage long distance shipping. The big losers are the poor."

Today there is a growing movement to encourage locally produced food. "Money spent on locally produced foods stays in the community longer, creating jobs, supporting farmers, and preserving local cuisines and crop varieties against culinary imperialism," Halweil said.