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