The rationale for eating local makes sense; transporting food emits greenhouse gases, so the further it has to travel, the more gases are emitted. Seems right, and it’s true. But we have to put the amount of CO2 emitted during food transport into perspective. The transport part of the food chain only contributes around 5% to all of the greenhouse gas emissions from food. Most of our food’s emissions come from land-use change and emissions on the farm: the methane-burping cows; the emissions from fertilisers and manure; the release of carbon from the soils.
