We knew that the transport of fruit, vegetables and meat account for a significant portion of the energy bill of the food industry... and now an Australian study has put a precise figure on this aspect. Transportation is in fact responsible for over 19% of carbon emissions, a figure well above what had been previously calculated.
Blueberries harvested in Spain, then transported by refrigerated truck to the Netherlands to be packaged. Then, the berries get sent to the shelves of supermarkets in France... That's just one example of a scenario that seems bizarre but is a real phenomenon, with produce traveling several kilometers back and forth, creating a heavy carbon footprint for the planet, far beyond what has been calculated by scientists until now.
A study on global food-miles published in the scientific journal Nature Food by researchers at the University of Sydney, Australia estimates that the weight of transport in the energy bill generated by the food industry is up to seven times greater than previously published calculations suggested.
In total, when transport, production and land use are taken into account, the food industry is responsible for 30% of greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity. On this scale, the transportation of food accounts for 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Germany, France, the United States and Japan are responsible for 46% of international food transport emissions, even though these countries represent only 12.5% of the world's population. The most polluting countries in this respect are China, the United States, Russia and India -- "logically," because of the large sizes of their territories and populations.
