How to Calculate the Environmental Impact of Fruits and Veggies

Fruits and veggies can have a pretty significant pesticide load, depending on how they're grown. Synthetic fertilizers can be found in almost equal amounts. When both come from synthetic -- i.e. petroleum -- sources, that can pump up the environmental footprint of the fruits and veggies you eat pretty quickly. But it doesn't have to.

In a recent column, Slate.com's Green Lantern was asked for advice about how to determine such a footprint. While beef and other foods with lots of environmentally expensive inputs -- animals, largely -- have received the bulk of the footprint-reduction attention, that doesn't mean that fruits and veggies and other vegetarian fare should be left out.

It does mean that a lot of the rules of thumb that apply to other green foods are mostly applicable here, which is a green angle that the Green Lantern doesn't really address. So here are a few rules of thumb to use when pondering the footprint of your fruits and veggies.