Just responding to the few questions you have up there, I think clarity's important here - the inherent virtue of locality (at least as it is generally posited with reference to food miles) is that it is supposed to have less embodied carbon because it's transported a shorter distance.

That's one of the big beefs I have with the idea of 'local' in general, since (for example) vanilla grown in Uganda would have a much lower carbon footprint than the same thing crop grown in a fossil-fuel intensive industrial farm in North America, despite the travel distance.

Big picture, people.

There are far too many manufacturers posing as "green". S.C. Johnson's new commercials really annoy me because they portray the company as "good for the environment" while they continue to make Raid and Draino. And producing a few green products doesn't make a company green, as Clorox would like you to believe. Even the new cable channel Planet Green does not live up to it's claim. Just how is a vacation at a Sandal's Resort green? I was hoping they'd take the opportunity to give some much needed exposure to products and services that truly are good for the environment. I think the government needs to enforce some strict standards for the green label. Somebody call Ralph Nader! LOL