Ag Facts

Within the United States, "fresh" food is typically hauled an average of 1,500 to 2,500 miles from farm to table, 25 percent farther than in 1980. Trucking strawberries across the country costs $5,000 to $6,000 for a truck carrying 1,200 boxes of strawberries.

• Romaine lettuce typically travels 2,055 miles from farm to store
• Celery often travels 1,788 miles
• Onions can travel 1,675 miles
• Tomatoes often travel 1,369 miles
• Grapes come the farthest with an average of 2,143 miles from California to markets in Chicago.

It takes a week for U.S.-grown food to travel from a field on one coast to a store on the other.

Source: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University,
http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/foodtravel_072103.html

About the Ag Update Newsletter

The Ag Update Newsletter is a bi-monthly newsletter providing education and research support to the agricultural industry. Current and past issues may be found at the following website http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/agupdate/index.html.

Contact your county Extension office and request to be put on their agricultural mailing list to receive the local agricultural newsletter and notices about upcoming agricultural events near you. To find your county office location, phone and website go to: http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/ve/.

For further information about this newsletter, please contact:

Ellen Phillips
Extension Educator – Crop Systems
Countryside Extension Center
University of Illinois Extension
6438 Joliet Rd.
Countryside, IL 60525
(708) 352-0109
ephillps@uiuc.edu