Food miles: the most useless way to measure the impact of food

Here are the facts:
š¦Ā Transport only causes 4.8% of all greenhouse gases from food
šĀ Most of those emissions happen during local/regional road transport
š¢Ā Shipping covers the largest distances but only causes 0.17% of all food emissions
ā”ļøĀ Paying attention to where your food comes from doesnāt reduce the carbon footprint.
Hereās a good rule of thumb: think of how much space was necessary to grow that food, not how far it had to travel.
š„„Ā Coconut milk: one palm tree ā low impact
š„©Ā Beef: fields of grass (and maybe even corn) to feed a cow ā high impact
So if your plant-based recipe includes coconut milk from across the world, thatās okay.
People donāt like hearing thisā¦
There are still benefits for promoting a *local food system*:
– more transparency
– more connection to our food and landscape
– more local crops and higher biodiversity
But once you enter the supermarket, youāre already part of the global food system. In that context, paying attention to food miles is useless.
I think this is good news, because it makes sustainable food choices simpler: make animal foods a luxury and donāt worry so much about all the other stuff.
What do you think? And what does it make you feel? š
@forkrangerFood miles: the most useless way to measure the impact of food. There, I said it. š Here are the facts: š¦Ā Transport only causes 4.8% of all greenhouse gases from food šĀ Most of those emissions happen during local/regional road transport š¢Ā Shipping covers the largest distances but only causes 0.17% of all food emissions ā”ļøĀ Paying attention to where your food comes from doesnāt reduce the carbon footprint. Hereās a good rule of thumb: think of how much space was necessary to grow that food, not how far it had to travel. š„„Ā Coconut milk: one palm tree ā low impact š„©Ā Beef: fields of grass (and maybe even corn) to feed a cow ā high impact So if your plant-based recipe includes coconut milk from across the world, thatās okay. People donāt like hearing this⦠There are still benefits for promoting a *local food system*: – more transparency – more connection to our food and landscape – more local crops and higher biodiversity But once you enter the supermarket, youāre already part of the global food system. In that context, paying attention to food miles is useless. I think this is good news, because it makes sustainable food choices simpler: make animal foods a luxury and donāt worry so much about all the other stuff. What do you think? And what does it make you feel? š Sources: Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D., Monforti-Ferrario, F., Tubiello, F. N., & Leip, A. J. N. F. (2021). Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nature Food, 2(3), 198-209. Hannah Ritchie (2020) – āVery little of global food is transported by air; this greatly reduces the climate benefits of eating localā Published online on Our World In Data
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