Dietary choices have an effect on the environment

[lionloversam]

That only applies to commercial feedlots though. Right? If options such as free-range are available locally, the environmental impact is less is what I have been told. Also I have heard, for fish, wild caught is better than farm raised overall.

[HasiraKali]

That only applies to commercial feedlots though. Right? If options such as free-range are available locally, the environmental impact is less is what I have been told. Also I have heard, for fish, wild caught is better than farm raised overall.

Not necessarily. It depends on the location regardless. Even free-range stock create a lot of waste that be washed through a watershed and into water sources. Some animal waste can also cause soil leeching which is really bad for plants, and therefore everyone else. Also, farms directly over recharge zones of aquifers can pollute that source with chemicals from the feces. I know chicken manure is especially bad about that.

Wild caught fish generally don't have a huge impact on the environment itself, but catching wild fish commercially wrecks all sorts of havoc on the ecosystems themselves. Removing those fish from the food chain can hurt populations both above and below. While farm raised fish have the land requirement against them, they don't completely remove animals from the populations and are more sustainable. Not to mention nets and by-catch that can have unintended consequences for non-commercial species (sharks, dolphins, turtles, etc).

As for locally grown products, our grocery chain in southern Texas actually goes out of its way to make sure everything is local, at least to Texas. All of the fish comes from the Gulf, the beef and chicken comes from north Texas, the produce comes from various farms around each city. Pretty much everything comes from somewhere in Texas. It's really nice, and they've actually won some awards for their efforts. Sure, there are things that aren't local, but a good chunk of it is, which I guess kind of cancels that out. Even the ice cream is produced locally, with local ingredients. You've never had strawberry ice cream until you've had strawberry ice cream made with strawberries from Poteet, TX. Seriously the best ice cream I've ever had... And the best pineapples are from south Texas. Just saying.