Comment by themaninthedark

So the EPA report is bullshit interpretation of the USDA study: >A recent USDA survey found that in 88% of U.S households, people hop in their car to buy groceries, driving an average of 4 miles to their preferred store.2

USDA study: >Overall, households are, on average, 2.2 miles from the nearest SNAP-authorized supermarket or supercenter, but their usual store is 3.8 miles away.

Based on these questions: >This report presents initial findings from the FoodAPS survey on three key questions:

1. How do shoppers travel to their main store and how far do they travel to get there?

2. In what type of store (eg., supermarket, mass merchandiser, convenience store) do U.S. households typically shop for groceries?

3. Do store and travel mode differ by participation in food assistance programs or food security status?

This can only tell us the distance to the store and does not support "All these car trips result in carbon pollution: over 17 million metric tons of CO2 come from car tailpipes just from driving back and forth to the grocery store."

In order to draw that conclusion, you need to show that the travel to and from grocery store was single purpose. Which is not supported by the data.

Most people I know don't go out of their way to go grocery shopping nor do they take specific trips to do so. It will be done in conjunction with another outing or when returning from work.

This could also! explain the reason that food secure people travel greater distance, as they tend to travel greater distance overall they choose a location closer to their travel route rather than their dwelling.