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Randall_Berger |
LOW FOOD MILES
Feb 26 2008, 6:53 PM EST
‘Food Miles’ is an insidious cost and pollution component that is not factored into the price of our vast selection of food. We tend to not care if our food comes from a farm outside of town or across the entire continent. This dollar cost is often amortised across the board, but the pollution of long haul trucks, etc. is still there. Food Miles should be noted on all products ... must as whether or not a product is Australian or imported … so those who care about the environment and local producers can make an informed choice. Yes, the labels are getting bigger as more and more information is added … Fat, Sugar, GM, GI, Gluten Free, Dolphin safe … but if people are informed, they can act. 34 out of 60 found this valuable. Do you? |
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Posted Anonymously |
1. RE: LOW FOOD MILES
Feb 26 2008, 11:02 PM EST
Actually, research shows that in many (but not all) cases it is more carbon-efficient to mass-produce food and fly and truck it to supermarkets than to sell it 'locally'.Not to mention that your line about the cost being 'amortised' 'across the board' is amazingly inane - presumably the 'board' in question is the food itself, and what you mean is that the cost of trucking 1,000,000 tomatoes is spread across all those tomatoes - doesn't this contradict the main point? 13 out of 19 found this valuable. Do you? |
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Posted Anonymously |
2. RE: LOW FOOD MILES
Feb 29 2008, 6:37 AM EST
This is not as intuitive as it may seem. The following is worth a read:-http://catallaxyfiles.com/?p=3450#comment-83656 In short producing products far away can reduce emissions. 1 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you? |
PacShady |
3. RE: LOW FOOD MILES
Feb 29 2008, 6:00 PM EST
While I agree with what's been said above, that mass producing food in specific places and shipping is more carbon-efficient, there are situations that can be changed to decrease the amount of shipping for food products. For instance, a lot of certain foods are produced in Far North Queensland, but before Coles and Woolworths put it on their shelves it is first shipped all the way to Brisbane, and then shipped all the way back to FNQ to stock on shelves there. It would be more green, not to mention more cost effective, to simply ship products intended to be sold in FNQ directly to the stores that need it, instead of running up and down the East coast twice beforehand (stock being shipped to Brisbane then only needs a one-way trip). It would also stop cases where FNQ starts running out of food when floods etc. cut us off from the rest of Queensland.This is just an example, as I'm sure there are many other cases of this Australia-wide. 3 out of 4 found this valuable. Do you? |
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drwoood |
4. RE: LOW FOOD MILES
Apr 18 2008, 9:05 PM EDT
While food miles contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, they are not the most important contributor from food production. In Australia, there are more emissions from cattle than there are from passenger cars. That does not take into account the emissions from reduced carbon in soil and biomass caused by overgrazing. It has been estimated that hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide could be sequestered by destocking cattle from rangelands.
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