An interesting, though longish, post at the “Ethicurean” reporting on a new study that contends that how food is produced is more important than how far it has traveled (“food miles”) as far as greenhouse gas emissions go. Specifically, reducing your meat consumption can go further than buying local toward reducing your footprint. Not that there aren’t other good reasons for buying local, as the post points out.

My hunch, though, is that, as far as individual consumers go, this all remains largely guesswork until we put a price on greenhouse emissions, whether through a tax or some cap-and-trade scheme. Not least because it’s often difficult if not impossible for individuals to know how their food was produced or how far it traveled to get to their plate.