It depends, but in the most relevant case the answer is a resounding NO.  The first question you should ask yourself is this, “how do I define ‘better’?”  By “better” most people tend to put energy consumption at the top of the list.  I mean, why buy tomatoes from South America (via container ship) when Farmer Jones grows them in the next county over?  Seems like there’s an obvious answer to that right?  Turns out you’d most likely be wrong.

There are many reasons why eating locally grown produce is good with respect to freshness, taste, purity, etc.  But if you are an advocate of local produce mainly due to a perceived reduction in carbon emissions in not having to ship food a long way (so-called “Food-Miles”), you’re not seeing the full picture.

Food distributors don’t import food from across the world for fun.  They do it because it’s cheaper.  “Ah ha!” you say, but why is it cheaper?  No, it’s not always cheaper because the locals work for pennies (although that is undoubtedly a factor in some cases)… the most prevalent reason is directly related to food yield.  Costa Rica can produce a much higher yield of bananas per energy unit input than upstate New York.  Simple as that.

As reported in the New York Times,

Researchers at Lincoln University in New Zealand, no doubt responding to Europe’s push for “food miles labeling,” recently published a study challenging the premise that more food miles automatically mean greater fossil fuel consumption. Other scientific studies have undertaken similar investigations. According to this peer-reviewed research, compelling evidence suggests that there is more — or less — to food miles than meets the eye.

… scientists reached surprising conclusions. Most notably, they found that lamb raised on New Zealand’s clover-choked pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced 1,520 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per ton while British lamb produced 6,280 pounds of carbon dioxide per ton, in part because poorer British pastures force farmers to use feed. In other words, it is four times more energy-efficient for Londoners to buy lamb imported from the other side of the world than to buy it from a producer in their backyard. Similar figures were found for dairy products and fruit.

How about that?  And another study from the UK found that,

The GWP (global warming potential) arising from production of tomatoes and strawberries in Spain, poultry in Brazil and lamb in New Zealand remained less than from those foods produced in the UK despite the GHG (green house gas) emissions that took place during transport.

It all comes down to efficiency of production, not just miles traveled.