Everyone needs to eat. Reducing the food miles between where you get your meals and home can make a big difference on everything imaginable: how fresh it is, the amount of fuel needed to transport it, the amount of CO₂ passed into the atmosphere…

On weekends, at least during the warmer months, I have the luxury of buying from local farmers at markets in Silver Spring (Saturdays—walking distance) and Takoma Park (Sundays—one Metro stop away). Buying from local/regional producers is an improvement over the Safeway or even Whole Foods, which ship their’s in from all points: California, South America, and beyond.

If you have the time and space, you can even tackle growing your own. I live in an apartment, so other than perhaps herbs or a single tomato plant out on the balcony, my choices are limited.

Enter Charlie, who lives in a modest home just two blocks from here (less than a ¼ mile according to my GPS), door-to-door. His place is a stone’s throw from downtown, yet he’s got 2 acres of land and, other than the house, it’s all garden. From spring through fall he sells his seasonal produce, and even flowers, to folks in the neighborhood.

Total carbon dioxide emitted: zero, other than trace amounts from my body.

If you’re thinking that global warming is a conspiracy hatched by scientists and politicians only to be dismissed, then consider last year’s hurricanes, our own weather this summer, and then walk, don’t drive, to see An Inconvenient Truth.

Afterwards, you’ll be glad you walked.