would be equivalent to taking “30 to 40 million cars off the road for a year.” Although Pollan did not mention the ES&T paper or authors by name, those numbers are The authors were flooded with “Food-Miles and the Relative Cliconsistent with, and in all likeliinterview requests and have apmate Impacts of Food Choices in hood drawn from, Weber and peared in dozens of news stories the United States” by Christopher Matthews’s work. since the paper was published. L. Weber and H. Scott Matthews, ES&T associate editor Laura Weber has continued to reduce Carnegie Mellon University, 2008, Sigg of the Swiss Federal Institute his own carbon footprint by cut42 (10), 3508-3513; DOI 10.1021/ of Aquatic Science and Technoles702969f. ogy (Eawag) says the paWhen Christopher Weper gives consumers ber and H. Scott Matimportant and useful inthews of Carnegie Mellon formation and quantifies University published their greenhouse gas emissions ES&T paper last year, they “by sources which are ofdidn’t expect a backlash, ten not considered.” but they got one. Their The researchers are now manuscript, ES&T’s top working with a major softpolicy paper of 2008, exware company to develop amined the environmental ways for businesses to betbenefits of eating locally ter track their products’ grown foods and found carbon footprints, and them a bit lacking in the they’re tallying the lifetime carbon-footprint energy use and greenH. Scott Matthews (left) and Christopher L. Weber check out departmentseating less house gas emissions of the local veggies in a Pittsburgh grocery store. red meat and dairy turned online music services. out to be a better way to “And we would love to do more,” ting back on energy-intensive reduce greenhouse gases than an Weber says. meat and dairy, and he reports a all-local diet, according to the surprising turn of events that fur—ERIKA ENGELHAUPT pair’s life-cycle assessment. ther reduced his emissions: “I Soon, local eaters or “locavores” won a car!” he says. During a started peppering the authors speaking engagement at a renewwith emails about a perceived atable-energy fair, he entered and tack on their way of life. “Which won a raffle for a hybrid-electric was not at all the intended purToyota Prius. “So I guess the way pose of the paper,” Weber says. to lower your carbon footprint “The point of the paper was to involves writing a paper about say that yes, you can lower your food-miles and then being exfootprint by eating local foods, tremely lucky,” he says. but you can do more on average Food writer Michael Pollan has by eating differently. It’s not that embraced the authors’ ideas and eating local is a crock,” he says. recently suggested that President Matthews adds, “Chris and I Obama lead the country in enactboth actually purchase food from ing “Meatless Mondays” at the local food co-ops and buy things White House (no word on locally. It’s not at all that we don’t whether the president has taken believe in buying local, but carup his proposal). The idea of bon reductions should not be at meatless Mondays first arose durthe top of the list of reasons.” The ing World War I as a conservation team found that eating an all-loeffort, and it has reemerged as a cal diet saves the greenhouse gas health and environment saver. equivalent of driving 1000 fewer According to Pollan in a recent miles each year, but eating a veginterview on Bill Moyers Journal, etarian diet 1 day per week is if all Americans eliminated meat equal to driving 1160 fewer miles from their diets one night per per year. week, the environmental effect KEN ANDREYO, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
Top Paper in Environmental Policy: Eat locally, or eat differently?
10.1021/es900427m
2009 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 03/04/2009
April 1, 2009 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 2195
