Carbon effects of international trade debated
09 December 2009
The debate on the role of the international food trade in climate change has intensified, with statements from the Archbishop of Canterbury calling on consumers to ‘eat local’. This has prompted a response highlighting the energy intensity of ‘local’ greenhouse-based vegetable production and the carbon effects of internal fruit-and-vegetable transportation. It is argued that the international trade in fruit and vegetables would ‘make hardly any impact on climate change but would harm over one million people in sub-Saharan Africa’. According to opinion pieces carried on the Guardian website, ‘air-freighted fruit and vegetables contribute less than one-tenth of 1% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions’, with far greater emissions occurring as a result of ‘domestic transport of food goods within the United Kingdom’.
Meanwhile in South Africa a major multiple retailer is working with farmers to ensure that its fresh produce is produced in increasingly environmentally friendly ways. The ‘Farming for the future’ scheme, which ‘focuses on building and maintaining healthy soil’, is set to be rolled out from the end of 2009, with the aim of ensuring that all locally grown fresh produce meets the farming practices laid down under the scheme by 2012.
The debate on the role of the international food trade in climate change has intensified, with statements from the Archbishop of Canterbury calling on consumers to ‘eat local’. This has prompted a response highlighting the energy intensity of ‘local’ greenhouse-based vegetable production and the carbon effects of internal fruit-and-vegetable transportation. It is argued that the international trade in fruit and vegetables would ‘make hardly any impact on climate change but would harm over one million people in sub-Saharan Africa’. According to opinion pieces carried on the Guardian website, ‘air-freighted fruit and vegetables contribute less than one-tenth of 1% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions’, with far greater emissions occurring as a result of ‘domestic transport of food goods within the United Kingdom’.
Meanwhile in South Africa a major multiple retailer is working with farmers to ensure that its fresh produce is produced in increasingly environmentally friendly ways. The ‘Farming for the future’ scheme, which ‘focuses on building and maintaining healthy soil’, is set to be rolled out from the end of 2009, with the aim of ensuring that all locally grown fresh produce meets the farming practices laid down under the scheme by 2012.
Editorial comment
Consumers in Europe and affluent consumers in developing countries are increasingly searching for products which are produced in ways that are sustainable and minimise the damage to both the local and global environment. With major retailers increasingly responding to this trend, producers in ACP countries will need to revise their production practices if they are to continue to serve premium-priced components of the market. This represents a substantial challenge for the coming period, in support of which expanding ‘aid for trade’ allocations could usefully be deployed.
