Food energy

As I've mentioned before, I've been wrestling with the best way to buy food. What is more important? Local, organic, something else? Apparently my kitchen is where I should focus my efforts. According (supposedly, some very light digging failed to turn up the actual study) to researchers at the University of Michigan, home food preparation and refrigeration is the biggest resource hog in the food chain. Transportation ranks fourth. Maybe the PM of New Zealand has a point, but then, local food doesn't need to be packaged nearly as much, so perhaps the transportation and packaging sectors should be merged.