LOCALLY produced food can harm the environment more than products shipped in from overseas, a study by Manchester researchers claims.
Environment experts at Manchester Business School compared the effects of food production in Britain with other countries and concluded there might be a case for more imports.
They also questioned whether organic food was better for the environment than non-organic. Gases produced by animals using organic feed and emissions from organic fertiliser could exceed the harm caused by standard products, the researchers said.
The year-long study sponsored by the Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) looked at the environmental impact of 150 top-selling supermarket items.
Farming
Dr Chris Foster and Prof Ken Green analysed the results of previous studies. While many consumers viewed local produce as better for the environment because it had not travelled as far, researchers said large-scale farming and centralised distribution could often mean global food produced less transport emissions.
Dr Foster said: "There is always a trade-off. Smaller, local producers have to distribute further to sell less.
"It means there might be 50 small vans coming from one farm instead of a handful of lorries travelling from a port, which would be saving a lot of carbon."
Dr Green said organic produce had its own disadvantages. He said: "More land has to be worked to produce the same amount of crop, meaning more tractor movements and more machinery being used."
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Marjorie Sawicki, MS, RD, LDN, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA (06/02/2007 at 21:31)
I think that in the ideal setting, the central point for consolidation would allow for palletizing for large deliveries to institutions, processing for value-added products, and farmers market for sales to the public in smaller quantities.
If one were to continue with the large corporate mindset then I could understand how the multitude of smaller vans leaving a corporate farm vs. the lorries transporting imports would have the same effect.
Now given that the news story in the Manchester Evening News couldn't provide all of the specifics of the study...there may be additional information that explained more of the justification for the conclusions of the researchers.
Bonni Miller, Wisconsin, United States (06/02/2007 at 23:52)
The "researchers" fail to take into account the long term viability of the land. Farming chemically typically depletes it of its resources, killing the soil, whereas organic farming replenishes and strengthens the soil. They also assume, incorrectly, that organic production is less ... productive than chemical farming. My guess is that they've gotten their hands on some of the "studies" done by a quack here in the States who's willing to say that up is down if Monsanto will pay him enough to say it, and they've included his tripe in their analysis.
I suppose next they'll be telling us that global warming is fake science from treehuggers who just "hate businesses for their success." Or maybe they've got some weapons of mass destruction located in Iraq.
Cripes.
Dan, Manchester (07/02/2007 at 09:28)
Ace Riley, manchester (07/02/2007 at 12:29)
David, Manchester (07/02/2007 at 13:01)
David C, City Centre (07/02/2007 at 16:59)
A-Tao, On a farm (07/02/2007 at 21:55)
50 small vans traveling even 30 miles uses less fuel than a handfull (5? 8?) of 45 foot articulated trucks from Kent to Manchester, not to mention the boat fuel and trucks at the start of the journey.
And as for thier bilological understanding of organic... so organic fertilizer causes animals to generate more greenhouse gasses (apart from being a dubious statement) the point is where did the gasses come from!, The organisims (thats what organic means) grew by taking exactly those same molecules of greenhouse gas from the air, so instead of petrochemical substitutes which are mined, organic fertilizer cleans the air before replacing only what was there already.
Jon, USA (08/02/2007 at 15:16)
Jan McCourt, Leicestershire (12/02/2007 at 13:35)
Srimanta, Itanagar (14/02/2007 at 03:32)