A food mile is defined as a mile over which a food item is transported from producer to consumer, as a unit of measurement of the fuel used to do this. Food miles are one factor used when assessing the environmental impact of food... including the impact on global warming.
Tonight, my family and I ate a dinner low in food miles. We had gnocchi with a fresh vegetable sauce. The vegetables were purchased hours before dinner, from a farm outside the city. All the vegetables were grown on the farm.
The gnocchi, however, was purchased from a local supermarket. It was packaged and pre-made from a factory. That factory had to ship the gnocchi ingredients from somewhere, probably multiple places (of course with food packaging we have no idea where individual food ingredients came from), make and package the gnocchi, ship the gnocchi to the grocery store’s distribution points, and then ship it again to my local supermarket. Maybe even a few more shipping trips were involved, depending on the sourcing of ingredients and number of distribution points.
But.... if I had a 3D food printer in my house, I would have made that gnocchi from ingredients I bought from the farm, increasing my consumption of locally grown food and further lowering food miles that went into my meal.
So why didn’t I just make the gnocchi, even without a 3D food printer? Because I simply didn’t have the time. Have you ever made homemade gnocchi from scratch? Sure, making the dough is pretty easy, but the forming process to make each individual gnocchi - enough for a family of 4 - that’s the time consuming part.
With a 3D food printer, I would make the gnocchi faster than I could by hand or with any other kitchen appliance, and I would know exactly what ingredients went into it.
Yes, I’m a co-founder of a company that makes 3D food printers (Natural Machines), but I don’t have a 3D food printer in my house 24x7 (yet!) as the few we have are in high demand. And yes, full disclaimer, I did drive a car to the farm, which did contribute food miles to my meal.
But, my dinner low in food miles could have been much lower if I made the gnocchi, especially when one considers all the food miles that went into producing that pre-made packaged version. With a 3D food printer, homemade gnocchi would definitely have been on my plate tonight instead of a store bought version.
I won’t even mention the additives and preservatives I also ate by choosing to eat packaged gnocchi versus making it myself... that’s for another blog. :-)
