The Prime Minister jetted off to Europe over the weekend to reconnect with heads of state and talk trade and the geopolitical situation in the world.
High on her to-do list is progressing New Zealand’s free trade agreement with the European Union, where we sent exports worth $4.6 billion last year.
It hopefully means more container ships leaving for European ports laden with beef, lamb, honey, wine and other primary products. Those shipments produce food miles, the distance between where food is grown and where it is consumed, allowing us to calculate the carbon footprint of making the journey.
For years, New Zealand has been battling a “buy local” movement in Europe and Britain, driven by local producers who don’t like competing with us. An influential Lincoln University study published by Professor Caroline Saunders in 2006 found that distance doesn’t matter.
By taking a “production to plate” approach, she proved that measuring emissions per tonne of product, New Zealand dairy was “at least twice as efficient; and for sheep meat four times as efficient” as UK sources.
We won that argument based on science. But a new study published last week in Nature Food attempts for the first time to accurately measure the emissions profile of food miles for food transport globally, and suggests that we’ve been underestimating the impact of food miles.
A team of University of Sydney researchers found that transporting food accounts for 19% of food-related greenhouse gases, at least 3.5 times higher than previously estimated.
Ships aren’t the heart of the problem, they are actually a very efficient way to transport large quantities of produce.
The bulk of transport emissions are generated domestically in moving fruit and vegetables, meat and staple crops between farms, markets, depots and stores. Fruit and vegetables have the highest emissions profile because of the need to constantly chill them and the desire in affluent countries to eat unseasonal produce throughout the year.
The FoodLab framework developed by the researchers covers 74 countries including New Zealand and 37 economic sectors. Globally, food miles amount to 3 gigatonnes of emissions annually. We are a minnow compared to the big food transport emitters China, the United States, India and Russia.
But as an affluent nation, we are very much part of the problem. High-income countries represent only 12.5% of the global population but are responsible for nearly half of food transport emissions.
What’s the answer? Buy local, say the researchers.
“Our study shows that in addition to shifting towards a plant-based diet, eating locally is ideal, especially in affluent countries,” they said.
If the global population ate locally, it would save 0.38 gigatonnes a year. But it is unrealistic. We will continue to feed parts of the world that can’t adequately feed themselves.
New Zealand’s real problem remains emissions from growing milk, beef and lamb on farms. We can electrify transport and buy local where we can, but the game changer for us is slashing emissions from production.
Originally published on Stuff.co.nz.
Photo credit: Stijn te Strake
PETER GRIFFIN 