Should our Food System Focus be Local?
Michelle Marks MCIM PIEMA
Carbon Literacy Trainer | Interests in Decarbonising Food and Tech | Speaker | Training which Motivates Behaviour Change, reduces Environmental Impacts and drives Business Improvement
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The UK’s food system is wrestling with post-COVID supply chain challenges, fuel availability and post-Brexit labour shortages. Carbon impacts are not to be neglected and much of the debate is focusing on ‘local’.?
?So what are the pros and cons, the caveats and advantages of cultivating local supply chains??
?According to The National Food Strategy (Part Two) ,?led by Henry Dimbleby, before WW2, UK sourced food produce was at an all-time low with the greater part, 70%,?coming from beyond these islands. At this point in time, more than half our food is home grown , which means a great reliance on complex global food webs for the rest.?
?It must be pointed out that ‘local’ does not automatically mean ‘sustainably sourced’, or even small holding produced. “Implicit in the term ‘local’ is that food is sourced from outside the large-scale supply chains, such as those designed for supermarkets, that producers are paid a fair price, and that labour is both well rewarded and rewarding,” ?Footprint contends in this recent article .?
What's the Beef with Local?
Choosing a local supplier might mean intensively farmed, high carbon impact and poor animal welfare ingredients. For example the carbon emissions of grass-fed beef versus intensively farmed alternative.?I know I like my beef (when I occasionally eat it) to come from cows who have had a contented outdoor existence.?But even grass fed beef is not the same. ?An 8oz homegrown beef steak packs 1.36kg CO?e compared to an imported South American cut at 7.91kg CO?e.
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Another example is homegrown tomatoes. Where these need artificially heated, energy guzzling conditions, they may be local, but at 2.5kg CO2e per kilogram the carbon footprint is ten time greater than produce trucked and shipped (but never airfreighted) from Southern Europe?at 0.24kg CO2e per kg (stats courtesy of eMission.org.uk). ?
It is clear that evaluating options can be complex. Having the right information and even knowing the right questions to ask suppliers is essential.?
Become Carbon Literate in Sustainable Food
This is where sector specific Carbon Literacy Sustainable Food?training comes into its own. Taking this short accredited course increases both knowledge of the carbon impacts of food choices, and how these preferences integrate with other food system implications. It’s a vital foundation in developing awareness of the transitional actions needed to a create future fit sector with resilient businesses.?
Book a place on Carbon Literacy Sustainable Food open course?or ask about in-house courses in the short form here ?
Find out about other sustainability courses or your full your full sustainability programme?here .
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Helping organisations & individuals to give nature a boost. Rewilding here in the UK, providing nature-based solutions for those who want to invest in carbon mitigation & biodiversity restoration
3 年Thanks for sharing Michelle, there really is so much to consider. If only we could have a truly global focus on the best solution for the welfare of the planet, it would make things much easier for consumers
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3 年Michelle Marks MCIM PIEMA thanks for opening my eyes to the complexity of being good to the climate - Simple slogans like But Local might not always be the right things to do. There's more to it. That's why we should all increase our carbon literacy - personal and business. I'm glad you are fighting for that.