Would growing food closer to home help prevent global warming? In theory, it seems obvious that local food would be better for the environment because it burns less fossil fuels during transportation. However, a 2008 study from Carnegie Mellon University suggests that the truth may be more complicated.
Final delivery (i.e. transport from the farm to the supermarket) accounts on average for a mere 4% of total food emissions. In contrast, food production is responsible for 83% of emissions. In other words, food produced more efficiently outside of Europe and then imported will have a lower overall carbon footprint than food produced inefficiently in Europe, regardless of any greenhouse gases released by shipping it halfway round the world.
What do our readers think? Debating Europe is running a series of debates called Food for Thought, looking at everything from animal welfare and the economics of the food industry, to food safety and GMOs. For this debate, we want to take a look at whether locally-sourced food is more ethical than importing food from all over the planet.
We had a comment from Crayven, arguing that the food industry cares more about profits than it does the environment:
We ship food [to Europe] from thousands of miles away, burning tons of pollutants and destroying the environment when we could grow our food locally within the EU…
To get a response, we spoke to Sergi Corbalán, Executive Director of the Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO). Did he think that Europeans should source their food locally, instead of shipping it over from around the world?
I think that Europeans should buy ethically and responsibly, and I think that buying local products actually makes a lot of sense most of the time. However, in Europe there are some products that are not produced here, so when these products are to be traded with Europe we hope they will at least be fairly traded…
Also, I’d like to point out that distance of transport is not the only factor when considering CO2 emissions. Studies have shown, for example, are less overall CO2 emissions when flowers are flown in from Kenya than when they are grown in the Netherlands, because of the heat and energy necessary to keep the greenhouses running while the flowers are growing.
Should Europeans only buy locally-sourced food? Or is it better to promote fair trade, and import products unavailable in Europe? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below, and we’ll take them to policymakers and experts for their reactions!
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yes, where possible, apart from global warming it would prevent vested interests within the EU commission, from favouring one country over the other, it is ridiculous that the Spanish can ruin the Irish fishing industry, it is ridiculous that Sicilians are told to leave oranges and lemons on the ground while they are imported from Chile, it is ridiculous …that europe does this with no explanation and no accountability.
@Rosy Forlenza
I’ve given up on buying Italian products – I was already annoyed about Italian CAP corruption, the Mafia infiltration of the UK, Bunga Bunga parties and now we find out that the Mafia has been supplying weapons to ISIS!
The Spanish have ruined the British and Irish fish stocks – they should either get out of the seas around the British Isles or handover vast tracts of Spanish, Farmland to the UK and Eire in recompense for the billions they have looted via an asymmetric EU relationship.
As regards the forum question Brits should buy British and Irish first and then source from the global market for the rest.
Yes, Buy British.
You do realise that would decimate French farming don’t you ?
http://britishfamily.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/MADE_IN_BRITAIN_web_300x300-300×300.png
In some cases it’s better for the environment, in some cases it’s not. Sometimes buying local is a good thing, sometimes it’s not. There isn’t a straight yes or no answer, things aren’t that simple.
Not all products have the same footprint. In addition, eating only local stuff might very well create a market for locally grown “exotic” food (with a certain impact on land use, fertilization techniques, …). And what impact would it have on economies and industries when imports/exports start shifting?
I’m not so sure it’s that simple.
Where possible locally grown food but all imported products should be fair-trade. Organic farming should be the new direction and green energy a must. Also the EU should lead the world into universal rights of food standards, pay and working conditions by not trading with unethical countries until they conform to ethics and social responsibility.
It s not your problem..care about schengen tax common policy,social common policy,agricultural policy,commercial negociatons.mind your business and drop what is not
@Ivan Burrows
Hi Ivan,
I do not doubt your veracity but would you please kindly point me to a data source that confirms your assertion as I would like to use same against those who think that the EU’s grip on the UK is one-way.
yes
Yes and by that I mean in each country. Portugal has been screwed over agriculturally by the EU since day one. Made us burn our fishing fleets (for little cash), made our healthy tomato sector meaningless, and is now trying to mandate downsizing of our milk and pork sectors. We are a proud and hardworking people. With the economic crisis and these attacks on our right to self sufficiency we are growing more angry and hopeless. Spain’s pork production for ex. Is subsidized by their government while ours cannot be.,so our pork is more expensive naturally. This is war far as I can tell.
Yes! It will help local farmers a great deal.
YES and make sure NO GMO is grown in our farmlands and gardens.
YESSSSSS!!!!
yes
WAIT until you answer yes. Locally sourced food doesn’t necessarly mean good food, even if most of the time it means good food. No GMO and locally Sourced food with good seeds and tasty vegetables = yes. GMO + nasty no taste food food = no. But usually when you grow them locally there is no reason to insert so much chemicals or to force them to grow …
.
It looks like the Brits are not alone in not wanting the pointless EU.
http://www.thelocal.fr/20160330/france-home-to-more-eurosceptics-than-the-uk
yes, that will be great!
yes, that will be great!
Yes from Romania. I hate eating chemical food from west!
Yes from Romania. I hate eating chemical food from west!
Yes, when possible… I find that importing from other countries when locally available makes no sense …prohibiting countries from producing to help others just isn’t right !
Yes!!!
Yes, but generaly local food is more expensif then imported and the majority of europeans can not efford it…except the inmigrants through the social help service.
Yessss
Yes !
When it’s possible…. we have high quality goods (Italy, Spain, Germany and a lot of other countries) but i like to eat also exotic foods for example…
But sure is that we absolutely don’t need of oil from Tunisia or tomatoes from China etc… anyway i’m not against this decision of the EU because products have labels and we can make a choice of a good made in Europe…
If you care about your health and safety, yes. If you care about being filled with pesticides and your kids bodies filled with chemicals you know nothing about then, yes, buy local where you can check and see what you are really being given to eat.
And, if you want food that isn’t poisoned and filthy, then don’t expect to get it at prices only third world slaves can offer.
Yes.And not modified food.Let us choose.
YES
YES
Yes!!!
Yes!!!
Europeans should value mostly locally-sourced-food.
The key word is “value”! After that it all flows positively! But Europeans must first “value” locally-grown-made-produced-food!
Without “values the rest is just fireworks.
Europeans should value mostly locally-sourced-food.
The key word is “value”! After that it all flows positively! But Europeans must first “value” locally-grown-made-produced-food!
Without “values the rest is just fireworks.
Europeans “must value” locally-sourced-food!
The key words are “must value”!
After that it all flows positively!
But Europeans must first “value” locally-grown-made-produced-food and everything else! We must value our neighbors lives, dignity and sources of income.
Without “valuing” the rest is just short-lived fireworks.
YES!!!
Yessss! On local prices!
definitely YES!
“Local”. Good for your conscience, natural, wholesome, pure. Yeah, pure religion.
In other words, pure horsesh|ite.
The “last leg” or last mile of delivery accounts for the bulk of the emission; simple economies of scale. In terms of economic footprint, it makes very little difference whether you buy your apples from around the corner or from the other side of the globe, provided the latter were delivered in bulk by freighter – which they usually are.
What you call “local”? 100 km maybe? I would set it to 500 km.
It has lot of advantages, like less oil consumption for transporting your food, less dependency on Arab oil, less oil and gas wars, encouraging local farmers and business.
But it would go against reason to buy “only” local food, and it is good to build strong European wide logistic chains for most of resources, as it helps to stabilize prices independently of “local droughts, floods, etc”, although the maintenance of the logistic chain also has a cost.
But for God’s sake don’t build a European logistic chain heavily reliant on Arab oil. In Germany lot of sources are hauled by train, while in Spain almost everything is transported by truck.
Yes. Each county should be able to produce 100% its own food!
Only
And what about trade?? Do you thinhk it is better to grow everything locally? Why would I not sell my quality agricultural products to a German and that German sell me a good car? Not returning to the past…Trade is the pilar of EU like it or not :)
So sell highly subsidised agricultural products which are costing the EU taxpayer billions of Euros due to CAP and buy in cars which are just tax generating machines?
Agreed, that type of trading is a pillar of the EU and one of the reasons it is such a waste of space….
Yes
And gmo free and E-number free. Avoid anything that has to do with monsanto or food product out of the usa. 98% of american farmers spray roundup/glyphosphate on thier gmo crops, pure poison.
Buy local and BIO ,its better for you and it tastes better.
As much as possible but not only. We need to keep active and effective our food production potentials. In these times of climate change and global instability we must be able to produce most of the food we need. This is a kind of insurance, it might be more expensive, but we all know security has its price.
sure. give up the bananas….
Yes,
we should also try to eat seasonally also,
the amount of food thats wasted here in britain because of too much choice.
Yes,
we should also try to eat seasonally also,
the amount of food thats wasted here in britain because of too much choice.
Yes
In an empirical and quantitative way, you must make a model (dummy example below) and do lot of calculations with lots of supply chains, and then compare the figures to decide the local VS remote threshold policy, because ‘a priori’ I have no idea of the numerical output.
Not a job for lapdog politicians and bureaucrats.
remoteSupplyChainEstimatedLifeCycleFreightAndJobsValue / remoteSupplyChainEstimatedLifeCycleConstructionAndMaintenanceCosts * K1
* localSupplyChainEstimatedLifeCycleConstructionAndMaintenanceCosts / localSupplyChainEstimatedLifeCycleFreightAndJobsValue * K2
* localSupplierRoutePollution / remoteSupplierRoutePollution * K3
* distanceToLocalSupplier / distanceToRemoteSupplier * K4
There are much more factors, like external (to EU) competition, cost of external dependency, fossil-fuel wars, war grand-strategy, lot of interesting work to do for economists, engineers, and military personnel.
Hi Jose, at first i wasn’t sure if that was meant to be a (premature) 1st April fools joke? If eating & food selection becomes so sophisticated and EU “political correctly” prescribed & difficult- I might loose my appetite & die a dishonorable EU death- funeral costs to the account of the EC!
In an empirical and quantitative way, you must make a model (dummy example below) and do lot of calculations with lots of supply chains, and then compare the figures to decide the local VS remote threshold policy, because ‘a priori’ I have no idea of the numerical output.
Not a job for lapdog politicians and bureaucrats.
remoteSupplyChainEstimatedLifeCycleFreightAndJobsValue / remoteSupplyChainEstimatedLifeCycleConstructionAndMaintenanceCosts * K1
* localSupplyChainEstimatedLifeCycleConstructionAndMaintenanceCosts / localSupplyChainEstimatedLifeCycleFreightAndJobsValue * K2
* localSupplierRoutePollution / remoteSupplierRoutePollution * K3
* distanceToLocalSupplier / distanceToRemoteSupplier * K4
There are much more factors, like external (to EU) competition, cost of external dependency, fossil-fuel wars, war grand-strategy, lot of interesting work to do for economists, engineers, and military personnel.
No.
Protect european agriculture.ban low quality food imports…
Are we able to do it? no bananas anymore? no coffee? no tea? no spices?
It would be better, but not for all products .
as much as possible
I do that as much as possible
WE LEVEN TOCH IN EEN OPEN MARKT ECONOMIE 😆😆😆😆😆
I recently did a lot of research on this topic, because I wrote an academic paper on locavorism. I think there are much more factors than the carbon footprint to be considered. First off, developing countries like Brazil survive only on producing products for the US and EU, BUT while doing so they destroy their rainforest, local farms and indigenous culture. Because they are so dependant on one crop most of the time, if there is a problem with this one crop, they are doomed. Also many times i see that supermarkets sell products from other EU countries that at that time of year could be grown in the own country. For instance when I was in Spain, famous for it’s tomatoes, the supermarkets sold beautiful tomatoes from Holland (!), when the ones from Spain are perfectly alright, but the Spanish don’t have any, coz they export to Germany etc. I think when you can, you should definitely buy local and the EU needs to do more to support that and stop having such ridiculous policies.
Dear all – thanks to all for your feedback. It´s indeed not a black and white picture. if you want to follow our work of advocacy for fairer trade, please follow us on Twitter @FairTradeFTAO
Hi. A preferable option for those who have the luxury of being able to afford buying healthy local produce. Thanks.
You probably are not going to get everything locally, but using backyards, empty lots, and rooftops is logical land use. A lot can be grown. The concept ref: peazplez.com helps people sell their produce locally on consignment. Check it out.