- Seasonal Eating as a Practical Step Toward Sustainability - September 6, 2025
- Creative Ways Cities Are Finding to Save Water - September 4, 2025
- How Weather Differs from Climate Over Time - September 3, 2025
The Global Environmental Impact of Food Transportation
Did you know that nearly one-fifth of all food-related greenhouse gas emissions comes from transporting our meals around the world? Recent research from the University of Sydney reveals that when the entire upstream food supply chain is considered, global food-miles correspond to about 3.0 GtCO2e, indicating that transport accounts for about 19% of total food-system emissions. That’s roughly seven times higher than previously estimated and equals about six percent of all global emissions.
The journey that food takes from where it is grown to where it is consumed often spans thousands of miles and entails substantial energy expenditure from burning fossil fuels, with the further the food travels, the larger the carbon footprint it leaves behind. The study finds that while high income nations represent only about 12.5% of the world’s population, they are responsible for 46% of international food miles and associated emissions.
Understanding the True Cost of Out-of-Season Eating
Studies demonstrate that importing Spanish lettuce to the UK during winter months results in three to eight times lower emissions than producing it locally, while tomatoes produced in greenhouses in Sweden used 10 times as much energy as tomatoes imported from Southern Europe where they were in season. This surprising finding reveals how energy-intensive greenhouse production can actually create higher emissions than international transport.
Swedish greenhouse tomatoes require ten times the energy as field-grown tomatoes imported from Southern Europe. One example is the habit of consumers in affluent countries demanding unseasonal foods year-round, which need to be transported from elsewhere, while eating local seasonal alternatives provides a healthy planet for future generations.
Seasonal Eating Delivers Superior Nutrition
According to registered dietitian nutritionist Wendy Lopez, seasonal tomatoes harvested in the summer are incredibly rich, sweet and juicy, but out-of-season tomatoes grown in greenhouses or imported can be quite bland and watery because they’re picked before fully ripening. Those color-rich pigments in seasonal produce correspond with higher antioxidant content, meaning fruits and vegetables that are richer in color and flavor are actually higher in nutrients.
Research shows that the longer a fruit or vegetable takes to get from field to table, the more nutrient loss occurs, with one study finding that leafy greens lost almost 50% of their original vitamin C after transport, storage, and 3 days on grocery store shelves. Some antioxidants such as vitamin C, folate and carotenes rapidly decline when stored for periods of time, with fruits and vegetables stored for long periods having a reduction in phyto-nutrient content.
Why Transportation Matters Less Than You Think
For the average household, food transport accounts for only 5% of their total food footprint, meaning if they sourced all food locally, the maximum reduction would be 5%. Production accounts for 68% of household food emissions, restaurant and retail combined accounts for 27%, while transportation accounts for just 5%.
Dietary shifts can be more effective than buying local – shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or vegetables achieves more greenhouse gas reduction than buying all locally sourced food. However, this doesn’t diminish the importance of seasonal eating, which combines both local sourcing and reduced production emissions.
Economic Benefits of Choosing Seasonal Produce
Typically, produce sold in season is more cost-effective because it is the freshest and not being grown against the elements, with proper timing allowing farmers to amend their soil for greater growth rates and yields that contain maximum nutritional value. When crops are abundant and readily available, their prices tend to be lower due to reduced transportation and storage costs, with local farmers often having surplus seasonal produce leading to more competitive pricing.
Purchasing seasonal produce supports local economies by buying from local farmers, helping sustain agricultural jobs and contributing to the local economy while often getting better prices and fresher products in the process.
Biodiversity and Soil Health Advantages
Sustainable agriculture that supports local economies promotes biodiversity by encouraging the planting of a variety of crops, which can be more resilient to local pests and diseases and less dependent on synthetic chemicals, while emphasizing local sourcing helps maintain the local landscape and wildlife habitats. The expansion of global food markets has come at a high environmental cost with higher energy usage, more land use change resulting in loss of environmental biodiversity, and a loss of species and crop diversity due to increased use of monocultures in agriculture.
Because demand for certain crops is high year-round, they are modified to grow in bulk and to resist disease, but these modifications take away some of their nutritious benefits, while fruits and vegetables grown during their natural timeframe will grow and thrive without any harmful additives.
The Nutritional Diversity Advantage
Seasonal eating offers indirect nutritional advantages because if your diet shifts with the season, it ensures that you’re eating a wider range of fruits and vegetables, which in turn means getting a wider variety of nutrients. By eating a higher volume of different fruit and vegetables throughout the year, nutritional intake is boosted, with seasonal eating encouraging us to cycle foods more which adds variety to not only flavors but the nutrients on offer.
Summer fruits like tomatoes, watermelon, and cherries improve heart health with their bright red color and are packed with vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, and antioxidants, while darker fruits like plums, blackberries, and blueberries provide benefits of reducing stroke risk and improving memory. Summer vegetables like cucumber, zucchini, and spinach provide immunity, strengthen bones, and improve vision with heart-protective potassium and vitamin K.
Reducing Energy-Intensive Storage Requirements
One immediate benefit of eating locally and seasonally is the reduction in energy required for transportation logistics, as food doesn’t have to travel long distances, lessening the reliance on refrigerated transport, which is an energy-intensive process. Storage accounts for 60% of carbon emissions associated with carrots, with higher emissions resulting not only from energy needed for climate control, but also from inherent yield losses that occur during storage.
Growing food outside of their natural season only works when humans artificially create seasonal weather conditions, requiring fossil fuels and large amounts of water that have negative environmental impacts, while seasonal growing requires much less energy.
Building Food System Resilience
Collaborative efforts among governments, NGOs, and private sectors are focusing on crop resilience and access to nutritious foods to address rising concerns about sustainability and food availability, with urban gardening projects in cities like Singapore and Amsterdam turning unused spaces into thriving agricultural hubs. Eating with the seasons is a great way for consumers to help cultivate a more resilient, sustainable food system.
Community-supported agriculture programs and urban gardening initiatives are providing locally grown produce to neighborhoods, while college campuses are establishing food pantries and micro-farms to serve students. According to ADEME, the French Agency for Ecological Transition, short supply chains can reduce transport-related emissions by 30 to 50%.
Practical Implementation Strategies
Research what fruits and vegetables are in season for your area, with a focus on cool-weather produce that you don’t typically eat since summer crops are popular and commonly eaten. The best way to find seasonal foods in your area is to make a trip to local farmers’ markets, peruse the stalls and talk with people who grow the food, asking them what’s ready to eat now and what’s coming soon.
Preserve in-season fruits and vegetables for later use by freezing, dehydrating, pickling, or canning in-season produce to use during its off-season. Frozen foods are nutritionally equivalent with those that are fresh and in season, as food producers flash-freeze them almost immediately after harvest, preserving many nutrients.
Overcoming Seasonal Eating Challenges
Keep in mind that if you live in a place where seasonal fruits and vegetables are hard to come by, like an isolated area, it can be difficult to eat seasonally, but more important than eating seasonally is making sure you get the nourishment you need. Relying solely on seasonal foods could potentially lead to nutritional deficits, especially in regions where certain nutrients are hard to come by naturally at different times of the year.
Consumers can mitigate some challenges through methods like canning, freezing, and choosing local greenhouse produce during off-seasons, with informed choices about food leading to significant environmental and health benefits. Incorporating seasonal foods into our diets doesn’t require solely restricting our foods to those that are in season.
The Bigger Picture of Sustainable Food Systems
Trade-offs are needed to maximize dietary quality and minimize environmental cost of dietary intakes, which requires a holistic approach to address sustainable diets, as a reductionist approach focusing only on individual elements of sustainability is likely to lead to unintended consequences. Eating more seasonal food is only one element of a sustainable diet and should not overshadow potentially more difficult dietary behaviors to change that could have greater environmental and health benefits, such as reducing overconsumption or meat consumption.
Recent research found that 65% of consumers prioritize sustainability when making food choices, highlighting a significant shift towards environmentally conscious eating habits as we move through 2025 and look ahead to 2026. Responsible consumption and short supply chains offer a concrete response to environmental, economic, and social challenges posed by the current consumption model by reducing the carbon footprint associated with food transportation and supporting local producers.
Seasonal eating represents a practical, achievable step that connects our daily food choices to broader environmental goals. While it’s not a silver bullet for climate change, combining seasonal eating with reduced meat consumption and minimized food waste creates a powerful strategy for sustainable living that benefits both personal health and planetary wellbeing.
