Shipping Costs
New focus has been given, in England on the environmental aspects of growing food. Many environmental activists have begun a campaign to reduce the distance the food at supermarkets travel before sale. My studies have refuted the causes for the local foods movement. With new theories about greenhouse gas production from the farm industry being developed, programs are developed to reduce the environmental effects.
Global warming has brought focus onto all areas of countries' economies. With the food prices fluctuating in all western countries, attention has been diverted to the affects farming has had not global warming. One of the areas under attack it the shipping of foods from other countries. The shipping of foods from thousands of miles away causes significant greenhouse gases to be emitted, especially from air transport. A new food rating scale was invented to address the number of miles the food had traveled before reaching the store. In this was many local activists could choose to buy only local foods which created less gas from transport than other foods. Local foods also support many people in the local economies and make England less dependent on others for certain types of food. The new rating system led to a new craze of growing locally to minimize outside transportation of foods.
This trend of local foods has prompted many studies to be conducted on the environmental benefits of growing locally. However, the resulting information from the studies contradicts theory of environmental benefit from growing locally. One such study showed that food transportation only accounted for one percent of the greenhouse gas emissions of the country. This was far less gas production than if England grew all the foods locally due to the necessity of greenhouses to grow the foods year round. Other ways that make it advantageous to grow certain foods in other areas of the world are that plants grow more easily in certain areas due to soil and climate differences. An example of this advantageous growth is that it would cost nearly four times as much energy to grow bananas in England as it would be in Costa Rica, which makes the much smaller shipping cost more logical. Food miles do not include the increases gas production from growing the food in an unyielding climate.
Another critical aspect in food production is the economic repercussions of growing food locally. One of the rules of economics is that whatever a country can produce most efficiently is what they should produce. The best example for this relationship is the production possibilities cure which demonstrates the best ways for each country to produce goods. This makes sure that the maximum output is reached and laborers and wasted in producing less efficient goods. Without maximum efficiency capital is lost in the economy.
Global warming is one of the most threatening situations of the twenty-first century. This makes our reduction of greenhouse gases very important in order to secure the future of the next generation. However, flight miles of food cause much more greenhouse gases to be releases due to farming in harsh environments for certain plants. The drastic differences in energy costs to produce the food make it logical to ship food in and not to grow the food locally. The monetary benefits also support the practice of shipping food from other countries. Due to the principals of economics the only way we can maximize our resources is by making the crops that grow favorably in our country and other countries growing the crops the grow well in their climate. Therefore the stickers indicating the number of travel miles is a very poor estimate on the amount of greenhouse gases that were used to produce the food and should be removed in order to eliminate confusion by the consumer.
Instead of using stickers a consumer could reduce greenhouse gas production by buying foods that are in season. During a crops season is the time in which energy costs to produce it are at the lowest. Another way to reduce gases would be to preserve your own food to reduce refrigeration costs for your food.
The new information on global warming has lead to a focus on the contributions each industry gives to the output of greenhouse gases. The food industries shipping costs have lead to a buy local policy in England. This new view on foods has lead to an increase in greenhouse input due to the energy required to grow certain foods locally. The stickers should be removed on the grounds that the information they provide is an inexact estimate on the gas actually used to produce the food.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/129855.html
http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics2.asp
Comments
Food production is important to the wellbeing of our society. We need certain foods year round. In the position paper, there are many claims made about the growing of food and how they effect our environment wth the production of greenhouse gasses. I am not entirely sure what your claim is, however we need to realize that rising food costs are a serious danger in our society today.
Global warming has been widely debated throughout the past couple of years. There are many signs that the earth is heating up. This can be seen in today’s climate shifts and transitions. Abnormal periods of warm weather also lead to this situation (climatehotmap.org).
I disagree with the statement made that explains that it’s more logical to ship food in place of growing our own food. In today’s age, I feel that it is important to not rely on other countries as our main source of food. As greenhouse gas productionc increases because of our growing and shipping methods, food growing problems will rise to an all time high.
As a nation we should focus on producing enough food to support ourself, because our poopulation is on a rise as well. Soon we will need much more food to keep everyone within the nation healthy. I do agree with your statement that we need to conserve energy or find alternative ways to produce and preserve food. This may mean that we explore alternative energy sources.
Overall, the climate of the earth will continue to change as we release greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Our food productino process will drastically change as well. Today, it is important to explore other methods to produce food that are much more energy efficient and do not release as much greenhouse gas. In addition to this, we need to become more independent with our food and less dependent on countries that ship food to us.
References:
1. http://www.climatehotmap.org/
Posted by: Nick Mueller | November 24, 2008 1:31 PM
Over the past few decades the shipping of food has become quite frequent. The rate of shipping has taken a spike over the past ten years. The fuels emitted through these ways of shipping have contributed to the tens of thousands of other greenhouse gasses. It is important that something be done now to begin to stop these unneeded gasses from entering the atmosphere. Questions remain about how this is economically possible. If the problem is not with the greenhouse gases then it is with some other part of our world.
I agree with most parts of this position statement. My brother, who is geology major, has done research into the effects of greenhouse gases and what they mean to our world. One main cause to this is driving that is not needed, like that of shipping foods that could be grown locally. He told me that over 50,000 miles are put on a pizza from the field to being frozen. Most of these products could be grown in our back yards. On the other hand, I am an agriculture major who sees little benefit in growing foods in places where they will not thrive. To me land is more important than our environment.
There are many positives and negatives in taking the initiative to ship products around the country. What is important is that we are living by our true beliefs and values. I value agriculture, my brother values geology, what is important to us are two different things. As long as we fight for what we believe in we will be doing what is right.
Posted by: Derek Mulhern | November 26, 2008 9:29 PM