How Does your Food Travel

This is a rather straight forward assignment. There is no length requirement.

You will go to the grocery store and select ten (10) food items that you normally purchase. These can be raw foods or processed foods. If you are a restaurant eater, then pick the ingredients from your favorite dishes. YOU DO NOT NEED TO PURCHASE THE FOOD. You should take notes in the grocery store. Feel free to use the internet to flesh out information. Document the store (stores, farmers markets) you went to, the item type, brand and location from where it came from. If you eat an item that has ingredients from multiple locations and it is marked on the item, make sure you document all the locations. If you want to make an assumption (i.e. the yogurt came from Iowa and the strawberries from California) you may do so, but it is not necessary.

Next, use a map program and calculate how far the ingredient is from the city in which you bought it. Add the distance to the grocery store to your home. This is close enough to get the rough idea how far of a distance your food traveled.

Next, add up all the distances to get a gross number for your food.

Here is my simple example of one dish I make and its ingredients:
King Soopers: My pinto beans were packaged in Cincinnati: 1,194 miles
Farmer’s Market: The onions and garlic came from Brighton, Co: 23 miles
Home Garden: The epazote I used came from my garden so no miles there
King Soopers: The vegetable oil I used came from Memphis: 1,097 miles
King Soopers: The salt likely packaged in Chicago (although I have to wonder where the salt mines are): 1,005 miles
My house is about 2 miles from the store, although I traveled 4 miles to get the local produce, so lets call it 12 miles round trip.

Total distance for my yummy beans: 3,331 miles (roughly)

My beans could have come from Durango or Grand Junction (one of many locations of bean growers): 376 miles for an estimate from Durango
I did not find a vegetable oil manufacture much closer, so we will stick with the Wesson: 1,097 miles
I did great with my locals: 23 miles
I could get Jalapeno Salt from Grand Junction (but still, where was that salt mined?): 325 miles
And my grocery store trips: 12 miles round

Total miles for yummy beans if the beans at the store were locally packaged: 1,833

Difference: 1,498

where the salt mines are to get a true understanding of the distance. Skip salt as an item in your example.
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