Eat local

Eat local (aka the 100-mile diet)

In 1940 there were over 6 million family farms in US, averaging 175 acres each.
Now less than 2% of the population produces food for the rest of us.

80% of all beef is produced by 4 companies

95% of factory-raised animals are moved by truck.

According to a 22-year farming trial study by Cornell University published in the July 2005 Bioscience, conventionally grown crops required approximately 30 percent more fossil fuels than their organically grown brethren


Agricultural production across the world doubled four times between 1820 and 1975 to feed a global population of one billion human beings in 1800 and 6.5 billion in 2002.
During the same period, the number of people involved in farming dropped as the process became more automated. In the 1930s, 24 percent of the American population worked in agriculture compared to 1.5 percent in 2002; in 1940, each farm worker supplied 11 consumers, whereas in 2002, each worker supplied 90 consumers.

Food packaging accounts for 30 million tons of waste annually.


The number of farms has decreased, and their ownership is more concentrated. In the U.S., four companies produce 81 percent of cows, 73 percent of sheep, 57 percent of pigs and 50 percent of chickens.
In 1967, there were one million pig farms in America; as of 2002, there were 114,000, with 80 million pigs (out of 95 million) killed each year on factory farms as of 2002, according to the U.S. National Pork Producers Council.


Collectively, America’s livestock produce two billion tons of wet manure a year - more than 10 times the amount of municipal solid waste. This works out to about 20 tons for each household in the country.


Better known as 'laughing gas', Nitrous Oxide (N2O) accounts for 9 per cent of all greenhouse gases, yet is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2). As a result its longevity in the atmosphere provides a potentially more damaging legacy than CO2.
Agriculture accounts for around 70 per cent of N2O emissions. The sources are mainly from soil micro-organisms that make N2O from nitrogen-rich fertilisers added to soils to maximise crop yields. Other significant biological sources of N2O come from the wastewater treatment industries where the greenhouse gas is again produced from micro-organisms. –
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080218134552.htm

John Edwards also backs a nationwide moratorium on the construction or expansion of new livestock facilities. And he told the crowd Saturday his opposition to corporate farming is a big reason why.
"Family farmers are the people who've worked, in many cases, for generations on the land to build a life for themselves and for their families," Edwards explained. "These big corporate farming operations, in many cases, they're getting millions of dollars in subsidies."
"I think we need a national moratorium on CAFOs - these concentrated animal feeding operations - so that we're not expanding them and we're not building new ones,"

According to the Worldwatch Institute, 74 percent of the world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs are produced this way.
Although Europe has become increasingly skeptical of factory farming, after a series of diseases such as BSE (mad cow) and foot and mouth disease affected its agricultural industries, globally there are indications that the industrialized production of farm animals is set to increase. According to Denis Avery of the Hudson Institute, Asia increased its consumption of pork by 18 million tons in the 1990s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_farming

More than 800 million pounds of pesticides are used each year on American farmland. More than 54 million tons of synthetic fertilizer are used each year. Ironically, crop loss has increased by 20% in the last 50 years. – Living Cuisine


According to the USDA the number of farmers markets in the U.S. jumped from 2,863 in 2000 to 4,685 in 2008. –

Only about 0.5 percent of all U.S. cropland and 0.5 percent of all U.S. pasture was certified organic in 2005 –
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/Organic/