Comments on: Are Food Mile Labels Misleading?

By: Meredith Melnick

Meredith Melnick — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:36:14 +0000

Thanks for your input, Russel! I hadn’t seen the New Yorker article, but was glad to have a look after you mentioned it.

And Frank, thanks for the article on strawberries. We are in total agreement that in-season, local produce is best and should be the priority. I think you’ve raised an important issue, especially regarding produce – the primary example used in my article (and many others). But most people (even food bloggers) don’t eat a 100% local diet. I know I use olive oil, coffee, tea, liquors like vodka and gin, and a few other specialty items that could not possibly be local for me. It is for these items that I would like a carbon count.

By: Frank Jones

Frank Jones — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:52:39 +0000

A sensible article on strawberries from the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mostof_strawberries.shtml

By: Frank Jones

Frank Jones — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:38:23 +0000

I’ve seen several variations on this article recently. It seems to imply that eating organically grown Kenyan produce airfreighted to the UK, where it is out of season, is comparatively lower impact than trying to grow the produce out of season in the UK. Does this argument seem a little cumbersome to you? The qualifications for having a lower impact are all predicated on eating food out of season. It’s clear to me that the best choices would be seasonal foods and preserved local items.

Eating fresh African strawberries in the UK in January will never be sustainable. It just doesn’t add up.

Airplanes are not a low carbon technology. Rationalizing away the damage done is a losing game.

By: Russell

Russell — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:55:00 +0000

Meredith,

You’ve raised a great issue, one that our CarbonFree label (http://www.carbonfund.org/site/pages/businesses/category/CarbonFree%20Products/) helps to address. I’m sure you also saw the recent New Yorker article on this subject – about how looking just at the distance the food traveled can be misleading when it comes to calculating carbon footprints.

In any case, CarbonFree labeling is one solution to this problem – it takes into account the entire lifecycle of a product, not just bits and pieces.

Best,

Russell
Carbonfund.org