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Do you know where your food comes from? How it was produced? How far it traveled before ending up on your plate?

It's getting easier to find answers to those questions. Restaurant menus and supermarket food labels now tout the origins of ingredients and make eco-conscious claims such as "pasture-raised" and "certified humane."

Food is a key part of a growing movement in Chicago and across the nation to go "green." In a three-part series starting today, the Sun-Times will also examine the growing interest and investment in eco-friendly homes and transportation.

Sales of organic foods are booming, and not just at specialty stores. Even giant retailers Wal-Mart and Target are offering organic items.

Schools, hospitals and food-service companies increasingly are choosing locally grown and organic foods.

And farmers markets and community-supported agriculture programs, or CSAs, are multiplying: Between 1994 and 2006, there was a 149 percent increase in the number of farmers markets nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service.

Green is growing more popular, but it hasn't been totally embraced by mainstream America. Consider hybrid cars, for instance. These eco-friendlier means of transportation get a lot of attention, but they amounted to just 2 percent of all cars sold in the United States in 2005.

Some people are going green to save the planet, others to save money; some are trying to stay ahead of the trend, others are making a statement.

Eating green -- with a heightened emphasis on knowing more about our food and who's producing it -- "has become more trendy. It's really gone beyond just going to farmers markets," said Paul McRandle, deputy editor of National Geographic's The Green Guide, an online resource for green living.

Lisa Rekstad, an Edgewater resident and mom, sees the food she buys as being more than fuel.

"It's supporting someone locally. It's knowing my food source and knowing the extent to which it is and isn't manipulated," says Rekstad, 41, who gets weekly produce deliveries from farms in Caledonia and on the South Side.

And, she says, it is about being mindful of her food's "footprint."

"How much gas is being wasted to get something from one end of the country to another when I can get it 90 miles away?" Rekstad says.

Eating green takes effort and can be costly, but it doesn't have to mean swearing off pineapples from Costa Rica forever or shopping only at farmers markets.

"There is something to be said for supporting small farmers in Africa," McRandle said.

So, for example, buy organic for produce known to have high pesticide levels, such as peaches and strawberries, and choose conventional produce otherwise, McRandle said.

For some, the environmental impact alone is the strongest argument for searching out local or organic foods or, ideally, both. Forty-seven percent of consumers say they're more likely to buy produce if they know it was grown in an environmentally friendly way, according to an August 2006 survey of 1,000 consumers by the Produce Marketing Association.

Industrial agriculture uses massive amounts of energy, water, pesticides and fertilizers and is a major source of pollution. The buildup of microorganisms in waterways from fertilizer runoff is threatening fisheries. Conventional livestock and poultry operations require vast expanses of land just to grow feed and are notorious for waste and emissions.

"Most of Illinois is basically a restaurant for animals," says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and author of the book Six Arguments for a Greener Diet.

Also troubling, some experts say, is how our food gets to us and how many miles it racks up on the way. A study done in 2001 by Iowa State University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture found that conventional produce traveled on average 1,500 miles to get to Chicago.

And that distance keeps growing. These days, about 40 percent of the fruit we eat is imported from other countries. In 1971, it was 21 percent, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

More than 90 percent of domestic produce comes to Chicago by truck, a versatile but more heavily polluting form of transportation than rail, says Rich Pirog, marketing and food systems program leader at the Leopold Center.

Pollution issues aside, green advocates say you get the most flavor for your money by choosing locally grown foods that have been harvested at their peak and often grown organically, or as close to it as possible.

"In terms of quality of life and eating, there's nothing that can replace eating a beautiful, quality, organic heirloom tomato from a local farmer," says Gary Cuneen of Seven Generations Ahead, an Oak Park nonprofit focused on sustainable agriculture.

Consumers might be getting a nutritional boost, too. While there is debate on whether organic foods are healthier for you, a 2005 study by the Organic Center found that antioxidant levels in organic produce were on average 30 percent higher than in conventional produce.

Eating local has its challenges, especially during a Chicago winter. Talks of developing a year-round public market in Chicago are still in the early stages. The nonprofit Green City Market in Lincoln Park -- which has seen weekly attendance quadruple in the past two years and has 40 participating farmers -- runs from May to December.

"There just aren't enough local farmers who are growing organic and local products," says Jim Slama, president of Sustain, which hosts familyfarmed.org, an annual organic expo in Chicago.

Slama's group has partnered with the Whole Foods store chain to develop a "family farmed" label for regionally grown produce and promote a $10 million loan program for small farmers launched last year by Whole Foods.

In 2005, the city of Chicago, with the help of Green City Market founder Abby Mandel, hired a full-time "farm forager," Mari Coyne, to recruit more nearby farmers and link them with sales opportunities. Coyne has since left the job; the city is now interviewing to fill it.

Farmers are doing what they can to meet demand. More are experimenting with "hoophouses" -- portable greenhouses placed over crops in the fields -- to extend their growing season. Matt Sheaffer of Sandhill Organics has invested $20,000 in a hoophouse for his farm at Prairie Crossing in Grayslake, which offers CSA memberships. He figures it will pay for itself within a few years.

"Once people have been part of our subscription program, they realize it's just dang good," says Sheaffer. "It's what a tomato used to taste like, what a carrot should taste like."

THURSDAY
The way we eat - and what we eat - is taking a turn for the natural as produce and livestock are grown green.

•   Natural selection
•  Photos: Buy green
•   Photos: Eat green
•   Blog: How green are you?
•   Eco-calculator: Quiz
•   Info: Chicago Green Festival
•   Family keeps its diet local
•   Fighting water bottle waste
•   Eco-friendly seafood picks
•   Scouting for 'green' coffee
•   Easy bein' green for a day
•   Grass greener for beef
•   Join the farm, get produce
•   Don't be confused by labels
•   Picking produce
•   Eco-conscious restaurants

FRIDAY
Living the green life is much more than recycling cans as homes are built to blend with the environment

•   Living the dream
•   Photos: Live green
•   Photos: Drive green
•   PDF: The green home
•   Blog: How green are you?
•   Green your home
•   The eco-friendly dorm
•   Hugg-A-Planet helps kids
•   Planet party
•   Catching that chilly draft

SUNDAY
Consumers find they can get around green with hybrid cars, alternative fuels and even public transit

•  Price of emission
•  Car eats its veggies
•  Fuel of the future?
•  Accidental environmentalists
•  Ridin' green