The term “locavore,” referring to someone who consumes exclusively food farmed or produced within a radius of 100 miles (161 kilometers), was chosen as the Oxford English Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2007.

Now, 15 years later, researchers at the University of Sydney want it to become popular again. They have found that transportation is responsible for 19% of the greenhouse gas emissions that come from the world’s food system.

This is up to seven times more than previously predicted, and substantially exceeds other commodities’ transportation emissions. Transport, for example, accounts for only 7% of emissions from industry and utilities.

According to the researchers, consuming locally grown and produced food should be a priority, especially in rich countries, which have the highest per capita food transit emissions.

The lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature Food, Dr. Mengyu Li says that their findings estimate “global food systems, due to transport, production, and land-use change, contribute about 30 percent of total human-produced greenhouse gas emissions. So, food transport – at around six percent – is a sizeable proportion of overall emissions.

“Food transport emissions add up to nearly half of direct emissions from road vehicles.”

Professor David Raubenheimer, a nutritional ecologist and co-author adds: “Prior to our study, most of the attention in sustainable food research has been on the high emissions associated with animal-derived foods, compared with plants.”

This new paper demonstrates that “in addition to shifting towards a plant-based diet, eating locally is ideal, especially in affluent countries.”

Rich countries contribute excessively

The researchers found that food transportation accounts for around 3 gigatonnes of emissions per year, or 19 percent of total food-related emissions, using their own framework dubbed FoodLab.

Their investigation includes 74 countries (origin and destination), 37 economic sectors (such as produce, cattle, coal, and manufacturing), international and domestic transit distances, and food quantities.

While the largest food transport emitters are China, the United States, India, and Russia, high-income countries contribute disproportionately. Countries like the United States, Germany, France, and Japan have a population of 12.5 percent of the world’s population but produce nearly half of all food transport emissions (46 percent).

Due to the size and range of its primary production, Australia is the second largest exporter of food transport emissions.

Food type also affects how much pollution is made by transport. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, for example, transportation produces roughly twice as many emissions as production. Fruit and vegetables account for nearly a third of all food transport emissions.

“Since vegetables and fruit require temperature-controlled transportation, their food miles emissions are higher,” adds Dr. Li.

The buy local discount

The researchers determined that if the entire world ate exclusively locally, emissions would be reduced by 0.38 gigatonnes, or the equivalent of driving one tonne to the Sun and back 6,000 times.

Though they acknowledge that this scenario is unrealistic because many places cannot be food self-sufficient, it might be accomplished to varied degrees. “For example, there is considerable potential for peri-urban agriculture to nourish urban residents,” adds co-author Professor Manfred Lenzen.

Aside from that, richer countries can use a variety of measures to minimize their food transport emissions. Investing in cleaner energy sources for automobiles and incentivizing food companies to utilize less emissions-intensive manufacturing and distribution methods, such as natural refrigerants, are just a few examples.

Professor Lenzen says, “Both investors and governments can help by creating environments that foster sustainable food supply.”

However, demand drives supply, which means the consumer has the ultimate power to change the situation. Professor Raubenheimer adds, “Changing consumers’ attitudes and behaviour towards sustainable diets can reap environmental benefits on the grandest scale.”

“One example is the habit of consumers in affluent countries demanding unseasonal foods year-round, which need to be transported from elsewhere.”

“Eating local seasonal alternatives, as we have throughout most of the history of our species, will help provide a healthy planet for future generations.”

Image Credit: Getty

You were reading: “Locavore”, After 15 Years Of Silence, Trending Again