Does it make sense to buy locally produced organic products?

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Advances in the Economics of Environmental Resources

ISSN: 1569-3740
Series editor(s): Professor Richard Howarth

Subject Area: Economics

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Document Information:
Title:	Does it make sense to buy locally produced organic products?
Author(s):	David Vanzetti, Els Wynen
Volume:	4 Editor(s): Darwin C. Hall, L. Joe Moffitt ISBN: 978-0-76230-850-7 eISBN: 978-1-84950-138-5
Citation:	David Vanzetti, Els Wynen (2002), Does it make sense to buy locally produced organic products?, in Darwin C. Hall, L. Joe Moffitt (ed.) Economics of Pesticides, Sustainable Food Production, and Organic Food Markets (Advances in the Economics of Environmental Resources, Volume 4), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.195-206
DOI:	10.1016/S1569-3740(02)04010-5 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Full length article
Abstract:	Enthusiasts of the organically grown food industry often espouse a preference for produce grown in the local region, and suggest that consumers should buy locally produced organic products. One reason consumers buy organic products is to improve the environment. There is a perception that transporting foods long distances is wasteful, in part because transport costs are not appropriately priced to include all externalities. Does this make sense? The focus of this paper is to examine conceptually how trade can contribute to a more environmentally-sound way of supplying agricultural products to consumers, even when transport costs are adequately taken into account. An example from the international wheat trade illustrates this point.