Food Transportation Geekery (Buying Locally)
This evening, I went to a presentation at the University on the environmental impact of imported foods (i.e., buying locally and all that stuff). Daniel mentioned it in his LJ, so I thought it might be interesting. It was an ok presentation--the person who presented is from the regional board of public health. He did a study on the impact of the import of food into the region; some of his analysis was a little suspect, in my view, but a few bottom line things to recognize. He presented embodied transportation energy (in terms of "food miles") for food grown in the local region, in a 250 km radius, and the current level of imports. Each of those steps was about an order of magnitude more energy than the previous.
He did not have terribly much in his presentation on "this is how to buy locally," (more of a 'this is how we think policy is trying to push in this direction'), but the organizing group presented some information on local community shared agriculture groups. Also, he confirmed something that I figured was true, but I just didn't want to ruin my illusions: local farmer's markets often have food imported from long distances--i.e., some of the produce is just via guys with trucks who go to the local food terminal. However, I have to guess that there's a higher share of local produce than the supermarket (especially the carrots with the dirt still on them).
I said some of his analysis was a bit suspect: one point was that he had imported beef as being head-and-shoulders worse than other imports. He pointed out that 25% of the imported beef in the region comes from Australia and New Zealand (!?!? in Southern Ontario? Um, don't we grow cows here too?!?); in his transportation cost weighting, he estimated that it was air transported, which has a huge energy impact (order of magnitude more than other options; see table below). I can't imagine that they send sides of beef by air--I'd tend to believe that they freeze it into rocks, and ship it by a slower means. Fresh pineapples from Hawaii to mainland US--I could believe that all right; they are a high enough margin item to justify the cost of air shipping. Just for reference, the figures he was using for transportation energy (in greenhouse gasses, in grams/ton-km) were:
Air 1100
Marine 130
Rail 20
Truck 270
Another useful link for eating locally was FoodLink--I just opened up the page; I have yet to start exploring.
Unfortunately, I don't have any plans to join a farmshare or anything like that--I'm afraid that given my uneven schedule and bachelor lifestyle, I'd end up using it 10% the time, and end up feeding the compost bin for the remainder. Also, I don't think I'll ever be hard-core enough that I'd voluntarily subsist on root vegetables, squash, and canned vegetables for the winter months ("Mmmm! Rutabagas again!!").
posted by Bats @ 9:54 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Don't forget cabbage. And apples, I guess.
On the other hand, if I ate cooking as good as the food offered at the lecture regularly, I would be pretty happy. (I'm biased, though; I know the caterer and find her cooking fantastic.)
Do you shop at the "Your" Kitchener Market? I know two or three vendors there who sell local stuff, some of which is both cheap and good.
Re - Imported Cows. They might not be able to "grow" enough cows to supply the region, and they probably sell them to other regions/US as well. Also, I would suspect imported beef would NOT be frozen because then it couldn't be marketed or sold as "fresh". Here in the States, poultry cannot be labeled as "fresh" if it's temperature has gone below 26 deg. F. I'm not sure about beef, but I would imagine there would be similiar regulations. So, flying in imported beef maynot be all that suspect.
You should totally do the farm share thing. Even if you don't eat everything, you can give it to friends, etc. It's much better to give your money to a small, local farmer than support large corporate farms or buy imported produce. Here in the States there is little if any regulation on growing conditions of imported produce. We recently watched a video in one of my classes that showed farm workers in Mexico defecating in some strawberry fields because they weren't provided any bathroom facilities. Eeeew.
So, support a local farmer - they're a dying breed.
Also, I would suspect imported beef would NOT be frozen because then it couldn't be marketed or sold as "fresh". Here in the States, poultry cannot be labeled as "fresh" if it's temperature has gone below 26 deg. F.
A good point. However, I've continued my research into Australian and New Zealand beef exports, and found this page from Meat & Livestock Australia Limited (MLA):
Manufacturing beef accounts for approximately 75.4% of beef exports to the US. US imported Australian lean manufacturing meat is typically blended with US fatty trimmings to form hamburger patties.
Frozen beef cuts accounted for 18.1% of total beef exports to the US in 2003, and were primarily used to produce deli meat products.
The US is a growing market for chilled beef exports. Australian chilled beef exports to the US have increased from 302 tonnes in 1995, accounting for 0.15% of total Australian beef exports to the US.
Mmm, mmm, mmm. Manufacturing beef. Yum yum yum. I just have thoughts of, "After the manufacturing beef is poured into ingots, it is then fed through a series of rollers to reduce it to hamburger patty thickness. This stock is then punched into hamburgers; offcuts are then used to make meat McNuggets..."
I think my current approach to eating locally will be to head to farmers' markets (I can get to the Kitchener Market on Saturdays via bus or walking), and buy carefully, at least for now.
Post a Comment
<< Home