Food Miles - Articles, a Chart and a GIF

Estimated Reading time: 1 minute 57 seconds

This week I read three papers, found a cool chart and have another gif (skip to the bottom for the goods). Two of them contradict each other. Conflict in scientific writing?! People throwing shots? What could be more exciting? And one calls the other out!

The papers are about food miles, the concept that the growth of food has carbon emissions. Food miles try to calculate the carbon output of food. Carbon calculations are difficult, because you need to make the decision of when to stop. Products are so well integrated, that it's never clear when to stop counting.The chart shows where in the food chain various foods output their carbon. Takeaway: Beef is the biggest culprit... your steaks aren't great for the environment.

Crucially, a great gif awaits you at the end of this email.

Articles

The Food systems are responsible for a third of Greenhouse Gas emissions

This article shows how much the food system emits. About 75% of these emissions come from land use and land change. That means using and converting land for other purposes.

Global food-miles account for nearly 20% of total food-systems emissions

This paper claims that transportation of food to its final destination. Since we know that about a third of all greenhouse gas emissions are from agriculture, about 7% of global emissions come from the food system.

The paper itself is an argument for more plant based foods and a locally produced diet. This applies in particular to affluent nations.

A move to local food systems would only have a small impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions

This paper looks at the previous research, which stated "food miles" are responsible for 20% of the emissions in the food supply chain. It argues that the upstream processes produce more emissions than getting food to consumers. This includes; transporting fertiliser and machinery.

What the authors do agree on, is that increasing plant consumption is the best way to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions from food.

Chart

This chart shows the stages in the food supply that produce the most emissions. This chart makes it quite clear, that most of the emissions from food come while food is on the farm. Transport is actually a quite small piece of the emissions.

The chart shows that meat is responsible for the vast majority of emissions. I do love meat... but these numbers are shocking. Great argument for reducing meat consumption.

GIF