Food For Thought

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080519122526.htm

Environmental Cost Of Getting Food To Restaurants Far Higher, UK Study Finds

ScienceDaily (May 22, 2008) — Pioneering research from The University of Nottingham recommends a full government environmental audit of British restaurants.

The report — 'The Environmental Sustainability of the British Restaurant Industry: A London Case Study' — has revealed that the environmental cost of getting food to the restaurant plate is far higher than previously thought.

BSc student Will Brookes studied 40 restaurants in London, and carried out an extensive public survey, to test knowledge of local produce and the cost to the environment of importing food ingredients.

“Everyone knows that importing food inevitably creates more CO₂­ than locally sourced foodstuffs,” he says. “But we were stunned to discover that the CO₂ produced by meals based on imported ingredients from non-European countries, is on average more than a hundred times higher than that of ingredients produced in Britain.”

The study found that an average dish, using ingredients from non-European countries, produces more than five kilograms of CO₂ in transport. In comparison, food which is locally sourced by environmentally aware or 'green' restaurants produces just 51 grams.

It is believed that food transport alone accounts for 35 per cent of the UK's total emissions, and the food industry is the third largest contributor with industrial use.