Organic food can be bad for the environment. One of my first posts was about the expected rail against Tesco’s soaring profits. The relevant part of the post:
Supermarkets fly in strawberries from Africa in December, thus polluting the environment. We should stick to local and seasonal
Firstly, shops sell what we want and if you want summer pud in November, then don’t get so righteous. Secondly, modern supermarket logistics are incredibly efficient and minimise transport costs as far as possible. Yes, we should definitely pay the carbon tax for the vegetables flown in from African but this might amount only to about 1p on a 100g bag of groceries. Far more damaging to the environment are all those trips to farmer’s markets in SUVs.
The Defra Food Miles report of July 2005 is worth a read. Here’s the exec summary. It’s a great example of how our intutions and gut feel give us completely the wrong answer and then, force us into the uncomfortable and unavoidable world of the trade-off. Just one example: is it better for us to buy local, seasonal produce, even if that means upping the accident rate, having a negligible effect on the wider environment, and depriving third world producers of much needed income that in time, will help them contribute to the climate change problem?
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