Food Miles?
- jmemka
- Oct 18, 2016
- 3 min read
Yesterday my exploration of consumption started with my smoothies. As I thought about the ingredients I began to realize that it is nearly impossible to avoid some form of processing unless you are starting from seed in your own garden. Further, if you are purchasing the seeds, fertilizer, etc. you are only minimizing the amount of processing but are still stuck in the trap.
Food miles seemed to be the next logical aspect to take a look at as many of the ingredients were not local.
The kiwi, banana, almond milk, and agave syrup clearly stood out in the mix. Naturally I began to think about how much energy was needed to get this items to my table. After doing some research I was surprised to find out that food miles is a minimal contributor to the carbon footprint. It was hard to find specific information about the carbon footprint of transporting a kiwi to Winnipeg, but it was very easy to find general information and percentages (the numbers were overwhelmingly consistent from a variety of sources).
After discovering that food miles only makes up 11% of the carbon footprint I was back to processing. Thankfully I found comfort in reading that bananas are, "a strong candidate for an ultimate low carbon food". (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2010/jul/01/carbon-footprint-banana)
The reasons are simple, bananas are grown in natural sunlight, the keep well so there is no need for refrigeration, they travel well and are transported by boat (which is estimated to emit 1% of CO2 that would be used by plane), and they basically provide their own packaging. Despite this, there is criticism that forest land is being cut down to expand banana crops but overall the banana sounds pretty good.
The kiwi isn't as nice as the banana and I was really hoping that it would be. Turns out the kiwi is significantly worse.
It needs a more controlled environment for optimal growing, the use of pesticide and chemicals is common, because they are more fragile they need more packaging, and worst of all the need to be refrigerated for travel. The reality, 1 kilogram of kiwi is roughly 1740 grams of CO2 compared to the banana which is 480 grams. Kiwi's carbon footprint is nearly 4 times greater.
For the last number of years I have been using almond milk as a dairy replacement (dairy and I don't get along) and now it looks like I will need to find another alternative. While the carbon emissions of growing almonds and production of almond milk is low compared to dairy, it uses a tremendous amount of water. It is estimated that it can take up to 5 litres of water to grow one almond, and some brands of almond milk are 98% water. These numbers make me wonder about the drought that California is experiencing right now and what roll almond farming has had (California is the largest producer of almonds).
The management of almond farms is also a concern, there is heavy use of chemicals in the growing process that is having a direct impact on bee populations. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a average carbon footprint number for almond milk but I don't think I need one.
My apologies, I will tackle agave syrup tomorrow. Taking a closer look at my habits is a little taxing.