The New York Times reported on some startling examples of silly food miles. All made possible because of (relatively) cheap oil/transportations costs and lower wages in some parts of the world. Unfortunately whilst this may keep some people in work in china or wherever, it does mean that the local people who used to do the job are out of work, and all in the name of cheap food…
Here are some of the silly examples:
Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale
Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground
Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya
Britain imports -and exports- 15,000 tons of waffles every yea
Fuel used for international transport is tax-free, thanks to a treaty signed in 1944 to help the airline industry - so who is paying for the pollution and carbon dumped into the atmosphere? It’s about time that the governments of the world got together and put forward a unified ‘polluter pays’ policy that would help see an end to this ridiculous practice.
Hat tip to TreeHugger for reporting on the above article.
That locally-produced, free-range, organic hamburger might not be as green as you think.
An analysis of the environmental toll of food production concludes that transportation is a mere drop in the carbon bucket. Foods such as beef and dairy make a far deeper impression on a consumer’s carbon footprint.
Modbury is a small market town in Devon, UK. Although there is seasonal (holiday) trade, many of the local shops serve and rely on the local community. In May 2007, Modbury became the first town in the UK to stop issuing plastic bags when goods are purchased.
Every single trader in Modbury has signed up for it (which is pretty amazing in itself) and they encourage their customers to use their own shopping bags, or where this is not possible, the shops offer reusable and environmentally friendly carrier bags.
Some plastic bag facts:
A person uses a plastic carrier bag on average for only 12 minutes
A plastic bag can take between 500 to 1000 years to break down in the environment.
In the UK at least 200 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks ever year.
When a plastic bag enters the ocean it becomes a harmful piece of litter. Many marine animals mistake plastic bags for food and swallow them, with painful and often fatal consequences.
One of the many interesting aspects to the campaign within Modbury has been the spin-off benefits and the depth and breadth at which people have looked into. Rather than just replacing the plastic carrier bags with a bio-degradable bag, or a paper bag, they asked the question “what is the cost (to the earth) of producing that paper bag in the first place” in other words, they looked in detail at the current alternatives to plastic to see whether they were in fact better or worse. They also looked at where and how the alternatives where made ie where jute bags made in sweatshops, was the glue used environmentally benign and so on.
A year on, Modbury has thrived on being plastic bag free and the whole experience has made people take a wider look at their impact on the environment, both locally and farther afield.
The Modbury Plastic Bag Free website is packed with great information on the reasons why, their community, the transition, facts on bags, the alternatives, suppliers and so on. Well worth a visit.
Electric vehicles conjure up different emotions for people - some see them as having no place on the road (people like Jeremy Clarkson, although I think there is no place on the road for Jeremy Clarkson!), others see them as salvation to our modern congested cities.
Video from Danny’s Contentment (link at bottom of post)
They certainly work well in cities where their small size, zero-emissions, and in London, preferential treatment within the congestion charging zone all go in their favour. The most popular vehicle is G-Wiz, sold by GoinGreen and made in India by Reva. Although there has been a couple of recent upgrades (AC-Drive and different battery technology, improved brakes & safety etc) which have improved both the range and performance, in my own opinion, they do look rather quirkly - not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but they invoke memories of those little blue invalid carriages that were around in the 70’s.
One car that didn’t look so bad was the Norwegian developed Think City. Originally the company that developed it was bought by Ford, but shortly before the final development of the ‘Mark II’ version, Ford pulled the plug on the company - see earlier post for more. However, new investors were found and the Think City 2 is now in production.
Looking more like a ‘proper’ car (which helps it gain acceptance amongst the population at large), it has some innovative features.
Built-in Telemetrics - you can text/sms your car to check battery status, pre-heat the interior and pre-start the engine
Lithium Polymer batteries give 120 mile range and 50 mph top speed. The batteries will be permanently leased from the supplier which means they will be automatically changed when performance drops below a certain point.
Fully homogenised - essentially means that it is classed as a proper car rather than a ‘quadracycle’. As such it has undergone crash testing etc like regular mainstream cars
High quality production - it ‘feels’ like a mainstream car rather than a kit car
The new Think City is due in UK in RHD (right-hand drive) towards end of 2008
Danny’s Contentment has some video footage of driving the Think City (plus lots of other great stuff on the life and times of an Electric Vehicle owner in London)
