Food Miles and Carbon Labels

As i sit in my tree house and smell the light scent of compost from my lasagna garden i think about how dependent we have become on our food suply being shipped from around the world to the grocery store and then to us. In the UK there has been a lot of talk lately on understanding food miles and more importantly having consumers understand them by way of carbon labels.

In North America we need to ask these questions and we need to look at solutions whether it be 100 mile diets, local 'green' houses (which can be green and emit less carbon than food shipped from across the globe), growing our own or a combination of them all. The Soil Association, the biggest organic body in Britain, may slap a ban on air-freighting. It is asking suppliers, the public and other interested parties for their views on flying in food to the UK. There are five options: 1. No change; 2. Labelling air miles; 3. Offsetting carbon from flights; 4. A selective ban; 5. A total ban. Read More...

Two things I know are true 1) the world is changing and 2) we need to rethink how we do things. So, would we change our purchasing choices if we know that the white asparagus we buy is air shipped to us from New Zealand and travels 14,000 kms ? Or would we still indulge? Is carbon labeling a good idea at all? Would consumers understand the significance of a bag potato chips having a little label saying that they have taken 78 grams of carbon to produce?

And when calculating the embedded carbon where do we start? from inception of the product? this is a complicated process, because the label has to reflect all the CO2 emitted while growing the potatoes and vegetable oil (pesticides, fertilizers, tractor fuel, etc.) as well as manufacturing, packaging, and transporting the chips. This would be a huge undertaking with many factors and standards that would need to be defined. Is this what a conscious brand truly would look like?

Simply, as a rule of thumb, I think we can all eat lower on the food chain (more plant based foods, less meat), eat less processed foods (more grains, less pasta), look at products with less packaging (bulk purchases) and most simply look to local organic production for your food choices.

Together we create change,
r.