With the holidays in full swing, it seems like we’re surrounded by an endless supply of delicious calories. Over Thanksgiving, my weaknesses included sweet potatoes, turkey gravy, raspberry/pear pie, buttered rolls, cranberry jello, and more. Unfortunately, all these empty calories come with a price – and I’m paying it at the gym.
Photo courtesy of hokulea at Flickr.com.
When I looked at package labels to count calories, I discovered something dismaying: there wasn’t a single item grown or harvested within a hundred miles of my home. The pears in my pie came from Peru, the Turkey was raised in Iowa, and my rolls were packaged in San Francisco. It makes me wonder – what’s the environmental impact of transporting all this food?
One way to measure the hidden costs of food is to count food miles. This is a measure of the distance food and packaging travels before reaching the dinner table. With gas prices going through the roof, it would seem logical that the companies we shop from would be finding ways to reduce food miles (and reduce their logistical cost) but food miles are on the rise. As grocery stores consolidate and national brands replace local suppliers, food is traveling further and further before it ends up on store shelves.
Also, not all fuel miles are equal. The way in which food travels determines the environmental impact of transport. For example, foods that travel across the country in a jet have a much larger CO2 footprint than foods that travel via bulk containers on a train, even if they travel the same distance to reach your table.
Photo courtesy of Øystein Os Simonsen at Flickr.com.
Unfortunately, retailers don’t seem to be pressuring their suppliers to track food miles. If you’re shopping for organic food to save the planet, bear in mind that the distance organic food travels can offset it’s environmental benefits. Many of the grocery stores that market to eco-conscious consumers confuse what’s meaningful (organic farming practices, trans-fat free food) with what’s exotic (bottled water from Fiji, Mangoes grown in Pakistan).
Dressed up as evidence of environmental concern, the mainstream organic industry is increasingly being used as a marketing tool, feeding off consumer worries.
And other vital environmental considerations are being ignored as a consequence…
…Eventually, we could see energy audits on supermarket shelves to help consumers choose wisely. If and when that happens, you can be sure that food makers will be falling over themselves to show the world that they think globally, act locally.
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