Prague - The Czech Republic is among countries that import tons of fruits and vegetables that could be grown at home.

According to the Rainbow Movement, an environmentalist group, the country imported 5,567 tons of tomatoes in February 2009. Nearly two thirds of them were produced in Spain, and more than one fifth in Morocco. In the same month, the Czech Republic imported more than four thousand tons of carrots, 58 percent of them produced in Netherlands and 12 percent in Belgium.

This means that trucks fully-loaded with food are cruising Europe, producing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and annoying people that live near highways with noise. That's why new highways have to be constructed, such as the new highway bypass around Prague that is supposed to channel the excessive traffic out of the city center.

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"Food imports are often senseless. In 2007, the Czech Republic imported 71,000 tons of apples and exported 51,000," Jan Kotěra from the Rainbow Movement said.

"You practically cannot see Czech garlic, a traditional Czech plant, on the shelves. More than 80 percent is imported as far as from China, which means unbelievable 21 thousand kilometers of distance," Kotěra explained.

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1 kilo of garlic = 1 kilo of CO2

Kotěra said that Chinese garlic comes into Czech stores often one year after the crop. It has to be chemically cleaned, as other imported foods, and imported in special cooling containers.

"If we compare the price tags, Czech garlic is more expensive. However, every cook will say that it has to add more Chinese garlic into the food, because of its weaker taste," Kotěra said.

Kotěra added that with every kilogram of Chinese garlic, the customer also buys one kilogram of CO2. Other imported products offer similar equations. For example, every five kilograms of Italian apples include one kilogram of CO2.

Farmers' markets: Way to go

The Rainbow Movement has prepared a special web calculator that shows the carbon footprints left by trucks passing through Europe.

On the contrary, Czech pears and plums produced by local farmers and bought by consumers at farmers' markets are transported with very little CO2 emissions.

„The number of markets that allow you to buy fresh and domestic food from local farmers is growing," Kotěra said.