Local food 'greener than organic'

Local food 'greener than organic' - Buying locally produced food is even more important for the environment than buying organic, a report says. [BBC - Sci/Nature] Iowa seems to be doing a pretty good job of encouraging such trends. The [url=http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/hort4.htm]Horticlutre & Farmers' Markets Bureau[/url], The [url=http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/]Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship[/url], [url=http://www.practicalfarmers.org/]Practical Farmers of Iowa[/url] and other organizations are definitely pushing hard for a greener and more economically viable ag industry in Iowa. I think the real issue, though, is convincing consumers and large distributors that buying local is better. That said, I have been noticing postive changes at large grocery chains like [url=http://www.hy-vee.com/]Hy-Vee[/url] in the past few years. Localy produced [url=http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M8835]dairy[/url], eggs, meats, honey, vegetables and fruits are sold along side interstate imports. Now while this is definitely progress in the right direction, I think the best solution is still a large-scale network of farmers' markets; big box retail of any type is simply inefficient. I guess in the end, sustainable agriculture and greener food production and distribution is a matter of consumer education.