Is eating local better for the environment?

Looking to make a good food choice for the planet? Turns out it may not be about where your food comes from, but rather, how it's produced.
On World Food Day, OECD Trade & Agriculture's Koen Deconinck debunks the myth behind local vs imported foods.

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[cykelbin]

Sorry, but when I interrogate your words, the issue of eating local is lost. The issue for eating local is to empower the sovereignty of local businesses vs the global efforts. Sovereign countries are being told what to plant to fit in with the global plans of crop production. THIS is my issue with global food production. I have seen videos of people being self sustaining on small plots of land and keeping the ambience right. It can be done far more effectively by those who follow a proper farming methodology.
When one says that destroying natural environments to make grasslands for cattle and sheep. The images of waste tracts of natural jungle being destroyed for palm oil, and natural grasslands for massive monoculture croplands: sugar cane, wheat corn, etc, even vegetables shows that the destruction of waste tracts of land is done by industrial farming. These farming practices push out the small farmers, and take over waste tracts of natural land and hence destroy big natural ecosystems.
It is very well know in Australia how the plague of mice is like torrents of flood water, but of mice, just devastating crops. Of waste flocks of birds doing the same. Because of the land and then the natural fauna and flora supporting a balanced ecosystem being totally destroyed.

Hence I will ALWAYS support local.. please do present a balanced argument for your cause.

[TaylorLincoln]

I definitely appreciate this video. Sometimes I feel like eating local and eating seasonal foods get mixed together as well. But in reality it’s about the nutrients and how it’s produced as a whole that is actually the main issue.

[rosingirlsmith]

This is By buying local I'm not putting money into corporations that cut down the forests for farmland that you mention in the video. If I don't eat meat, and buy produce from local farmers then I am doing more for the environment than not eating meat and buying from chain stores.