Other than relying on “food miles” as an indicator of greenhouse gas emissions, the mode of transport is also an important determinant. There are 3 main modes of transportation, namely air, land and sea.
Air transport emits the greatest amount of greenhouse gases, followed by land and rail transportation. Sea transport releases the least amounts of emissions, however, it takes a longer duration as compared to air and land transportation. “Airfreight generates 50 times more CO2 than sea shipping” (The Conscious Club, 2019). Can you make a guess on which mode of transportation is most commonly used today?
Sea transport is the most common mode of transport! This is because it is the cheapest mode and also the most carbon-efficient method of shipping. “A big ship will emit about 10 grams of carbon dioxide to transport 1 metric ton of cargo 1 kilometre. That’s roughly half as much as a train, one-fifth as much as a truck and nearly a fiftieth of what an airplane would emit” (Berg, 2015).
Foods which are air-freighted tend to be those which are highly perishable, which need to be eaten soon after harvesting. Most of the products are fruits and vegetables, such as asparagus, green beans and berries (Our World in Data, 2020). Moreover, food products are often transported in temperature-controlled containers to ensure their freshness and prevent food from rotting and wasted. Much of the fruits and vegetables are harvested while still unripe and then gassed to “ripen” it after transport, or it is highly processed in factories using preservatives, irradiation, and other means to keep it stable for transport and sale (The Conscious Club, 2019). Other than air transport, food can also be transported via refrigerated trucks which utilise diesel and hydrofluorocarbon chemicals in their cooling cycle. These chemicals are known as “super greenhouse gases” because they are thousands of times more warming than carbon dioxide (Twilley, 2015). But with new technology, there has been the development of cryogenic temperature control systems, where liquid nitrogen is used and there are no polluting refrigerant chemicals and greenhouse gas emissions (ibid.).
Sometimes it can be difficult for us, consumers to identify the mode of transportation of our food items. However, we can try to avoid those products that have high ‘food miles’, where they travel a long distance from the country of origin. For some corporations, they have created schemes to keep consumers aware of the carbon footprint of food products. For example, Tesco had introduced a labeling system, Carbon Trust* to inform and encourage consumers to make better food choices. The labels include information on where the food product comes from and its cultivation methods, “some foods that travel long distances may actually have an environmental advantage over local products, like flowers grown in the tropics instead of in energy-hungry European greenhouses” (Rosenthal, 2008).
(*Tesco stopped this scheme in 2012 due to the high costs and excessive time and research required.)
Although the environmental impact from the transportation of food accounts for just 11% of total carbon emissions, it is still a key stage in analysing the foodprints. This is commonly hidden away and it can be rather difficult for consumers to find out how our food arrives in our supermarkets and in restaurants.
Despite increasing efforts by states to impose taxes on food imports by air freight and efforts by corporations to keep consumers informed about the food products, more needs to be done to bring light to the carbon footprint of our food and ensure mindful consumption.
In the next post, we will illustrate with a case study of how and where Singapore imports food from!
Trailing off,
Jade and Ridzuan
References
Berg, N. (2015). The environmental cost of shipping stuff is huge. Can we fix that? [online] Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/2015/12/23/10647768/shipping-environmental-cost [Accessed 22 Sep. 2020].
Our World in Data. (2020). Very little of global food is transported by air; this greatly reduces the climate benefits of eating local. [online] Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/food-transport-by-mode [Accessed 22 Sep. 2020].
Rosenthal, E. (2008). Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World. The New York Times. [online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/business/worldbusiness/26food.html [Accessed 22 Sep. 2020].
The Conscious Club. (2019). Food & Transportation- The Conscious Challenge. [online] Available at: https://www.theconsciouschallenge.org/ecologicalfootprintbibleoverview/food-transportation. [Accessed 22 Sep. 2020].
Twilley, N. (2015). The Chill Ride Your Food Takes to the Supermarket Is Heating Up the Planet. TakePart. Available at: http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/06/29/coldscape-refrigerated-trucking [Accessed 22 Sep. 2020].
