Multiple studies have looked at the environmental impact of conventional agriculture versus the local food movement. These studies show that there is not yet a consistent methodology for measuring energy consumption in local versus non-local farms. "Local" is not a clearly defined measurement, and by only examining the energy in terms of "food miles" versus an entire life cycle assessment (LCA), much of the research on local farming is missing key components of the farm-to-consumer process, and the energy consumption involved. For example, despite the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from transporting farm foods to consumers, agricultural soils are also responsible for releasing significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (Schlesinger). The life cycle assessment attempts to measure the impacts of each activity directly or indirectly involved in the production, transport, storage, retail, consumption and disposal of a particular food from "farm to fork" or "farm to waste". Studies that examine the LCA still show that there is no clear conclusion on the environmental impact of local versus non-local agriculture. A study in Sweden that examined bread production using local flour versus flour from other regions in Sweden found that the smaller scale of local farms results in less energy efficiency5. Another study supports this argument that global food systems have better energy efficiency due to the size of production, the so-called "ecology-of-scale". Both of these studies are countered by other studies that found lower emissions on small scale bread making facilities, contesting the accuracy of the measurements in the Schilich and Fleissner study. These studies show the inherent variation in farming production, which leads to varying levels of impact on the environment. Other environmental assessments of farming production methods include:
Water consumption (including contamination of water from surface waterways exposed to feces from cattle and wildlife),
Use (and production) of fertilizers and pesticides (and the impact of these chemical in ground water),
Risk of food contamination and infectious agents from longer traveling times from farm to consumer,
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and the impact on animal and human health,
And mono-agriculture methods that cause soil erosion and soil nutrient depletion.
Several organizations promoting sustainable agriculture methods have been created on a national and international scale in response to growing concerns about the impact of current farming production methods on the environment, the economy, human health, and animal health combined.