Math for Locavores

El_Dangeroso

Interesting article in the NYT about the sustainability of local food:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/opinion/20budiansky.html?_r=3&ref=opinion

Turns out in America at least 32% of all food energy is storage and preparation in the home! That shocked me, I consider myself a bit of a locavore (well I try to be), so all my good work's being undone by my fridge??

(Sorry mods, didn't know what prefix to put on this, change if necessary)

Prabhu Deva

a fridge is most efficient when it is filled to the brim. once the initial heat has been removed from something you put in a fridge its pretty much a constant amount of energy thats required to move the heat that makes its way into the fridge back out again

people who write these articles are always notoriously vague about where they get their figures from. it seems a load of crock really, would you get rid of your fridge if you didn't go to the farmers market? would your food not need to be cooked anymore if it came from far away?

even if you buy only 'ready to eat' food it still has to be cooked and stored somewhere

Macha

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Iurns out in America at least 32% of all food energy is storage and preparation in the home! That shocked me, I consider myself a bit of a locavore (well I try to be), so all my good work's being undone by my fridge??

Of course not. 32% still leaves the majority of 68% that comes in production.

Plus that article makes reference to the US, where transport, storage and preparation is less efficient that in Europe, where the consumer's contribution might be closer to 25% or even 20%.

What we need is better information:

Consumers now have little information about the true ecological impacts of what they buy. But that may be about to change, as new technologies that track supply chains are emerging and companies as diverse as Unilever and Google look to make their products more sustainable.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS116344532720100820

El_Dangeroso

Very true, food miles on the labels of veg would hit home I think.

Hmm, having re-read that article, I think the author is building a bit of a straw-man argument. Who are the 'locavore food police' anyway??

Macha

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Very true, food miles on the labels of veg would hit home I think.

Or even info on water usage etc. But deep down, I think all these things just need to be included in the price and then people will make their decisions. Simple and straightforward.

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Hmm, having re-read that article, I think the author is building a bit of a straw-man argument. Who are the 'locavore food police' anyway??

Ah well, the author is right to point out that there are no hard-and-fast rules about these things. That's the problem with rules of thumb, like always buying local, organic, etc - things are rarely that simple.