WTVO/WQRF - Take a look at what's on your dinner plate.  Where the food came from, and how far it had to travel to get to your plate could have a big impact on our environment.  The ingredients for an average American meal typically travel between 1500 and 2500 miles.  That's a lot of fuel and refrigeration.

This is a typical supermarket produce section.  There are peppers from California, cranberries from Maine and a lot of stuff from overseas.  When you stop and think about it, t's a lot of frequent flier miles for your dinner salad.  That's why each summer this store switches suppliers.

“Last summer we started our own in-store farmers market,” says grocery store owner Randy Richards.  “we teamed up with Fass Night Creek Farms and it went over really exceptional and we'll have that back when the good vegetables become available.”

But this store doesn't stop with produce.  Practically every aisle has some home-grown product.  From nuts, to milk, even eggs and meat.

“We have a fresh is best kind of philosophy around here,” says Richards.  “We do have people who come in and do want locally-raised and especially the all-natural products and we try to give them what they want.

The idea may be to meet customers' expectations, but helping mother nature is a nice bonus.

“Anytime you can cut down on transportation costs you're going to have less fossil fuels used and that does have a benefit to the ecosystem, says Richards.  “What I like is we get to know the actual people who grow it or have the product and they come by and deliver it a lot of times.

One way to get to know the producer, is to become the producer.  Calories are the only fuel you'll burn getting these vegetables to the table, and, you'll know exactly how they've been raised.

To get started, consult the experts at your university extension center.  “Every state has a program that's called the master gardener program,” says Gaylord Moore of the University of Missouri.  Then find some dirt and seeds.  If raising your own food is going a bit too far for you, there is an easier way to get locally-produced food.  Just log on to farmers market.com for a state-by-state list of farmers' markets in your area.