Organic trumps local?

The Guardian reported a University of Wales Institute in Cardiff study that found the majority of food's ecological footprint comes from food processing, storage, packaging and growing conditions. The researchers argue that a 2% of the environmental impact of food comes from food miles - the distance food travels before it reaches the consumer - and thus misses the big picture. A better system would consider all environmental impacts (e.g., land required and the amount of energy used to grow, harvest, process, package, and transport the food).

The researchers recommend that consumers should not base their choices on distance alone, as local food could have a larger footprint than food flown halfway around the world. They go on to say, "the footprint for wine is just too high."

[This assertion is supported by a 2006 study from the University of Siena which compared the conventional and organic production of Tuscan wine. This study found that a conventional farm requires twice the amount of natural resources, expressed in terms of global hectares.]