NBC25 NEWS - You don't have to become a fanatic to be environmentally friendly.  It can be as simple as how you buy your groceries.

It's just a fact of life.  Everyone has to eat, and that means a trip to the grocery story.

Decisions you make there can impact the environment.

One thing you can do is consider foods that are organically produced.

They're free of chemicals and the organic process benefits farm workers and the environment.

If you don’t have an organic specialty store nearby, you still have options.

"Talk to your grocer, talk to your butcher, figure out where these things, figure out what you're eating is coming from," advises David Devereaux of Wholesome Foods.

Buying locally grown produce also has benefits.

Generally speaking, local food uses less packaging, is fresher and arguably tastier.

The trip your food took to market is something else to consider.

When you buy local you reduce the miles your food traveled.

That reduces the amount of carbon emissions connected to each morsel.

"The carbon footprint of whatever it is that you're buying is extremely small.  It was grown here, it was bought and sold here, and it didn't have to travel thousands of miles," Devereaux says.

Cutting down on the amount of meat you eat can be the greenest move you make.

Red meat is the most resource-intensive food you can put on your table.

Raising cattle requires large amounts of land, water and grain.

Some say it takes 12,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef.

The average U.S. meal comes from five different countries.  Some people are trying what's called the 100-mile diet.  They eat only products grown or raised within a hundred mile radius of home.