Not necessarily. Many people now equate the terms "local food” and “sustainable food,” using local as a synonym for characteristics such as fresh, healthful, and produced in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Technically though, “local” means only that a food was produced relatively close to where it’s sold – the term doesn’t provide any indication of food qualities such as freshness, nutritional value, or production practices, and can’t be used as a reliable indicator of sustainability. For instance, while meat from a factory farm could be accurately marketed to a nearby community as “local,” the meat would certainly not be considered sustainable. Furthermore, as noted above, the maximum acceptable distance from a “local” food’s point of production to its point of sale isn’t actually defined or regulated – it’s left up to the interpretation of whoever is using the term.