Er, what? Most people buy their ground coffee in little vacuum sealed plastic bags: why can’t this be done where they are grown? I will concede that the beans I buy should perhaps be roasted in the shop I get them from…
Also it uses less energy to /freeze/-dry things in Hamburg than in Kenya.
Any hard figures to back this up? It sounds like pure conjecture: perhaps 10 degrees in temperate difference is not going to make that much difference in *freezing* something… Ah, Wiki is my friend. So that’s a high vacuum and -50C, which makes me think that it would be highly efficient in orbit, but that moving from Kenya to Hamburg will make little difference…
]]>Now, if this processing could be done where the coffee beans are grown, then it would give more money to producers. It would also involve shipping a much lighted product about the place, which is presumably more energy efficient.
The same goes for other foods. Yes, fresh fruit has to be flown in, basically. But how much of our food is processed? And why can’t this processing be done in the country where the food is grown, so that we only have ship the finished product about the place (often said product is then much longer lasting than the fresh product, so it could e.g. go by sea and not air).
Anyway, I think the moral is that we could save a vast amount of energy if we wanted to, without substantially changing the availability or cost of what we eat. Of course, we would probably have to accept lower profits for Nestle etc.
]]>Though I’d probably exempt mangoes. God-Emperors can be a capricious lot.
]]>Dave, I think you may have confused me with a luddite. I’m not suggesting a return to the neolithic. Though if I were, I’d probably consider linen or finely woven wool prior to animal fur. But feel free to get all Iron John if you want.
Bugger that. Have I had my last cup of coffee? Eaten my last pineapple?
Clearly not. And even though I watch food-miles like a hawk, I will continue to buy a couple of mangoes a week.
My point is merely that a globalised food supply system is an inherently bad way to organise things. I urge you (and anyone else reading this) to check out Colin Tudge’s eye-opening book And So Shall We Reap. It changed my mind on a number of important issues, and I’m sure everyone would agree that’s the best kind of book there is.
I’m not suggesting that we restrict tropical fruit and coffee to the tropics. As I said, I think you mistake me for a luddite, merely that we get our house in order. Globalised trade in foodstuffs (and clothing) has replaced local self-sufficiency rather than supplemented it (which any thinking person would surely agree must be the ideal) and that in turn has created a crisis waiting to happen.
I’m not a free-marketeer (by any stretch of the imagination) and – were I appointed God-Emperor of Earth tomorrow – I would, I’m sorry to say, directly link food costs to miles travelled (obviously this would have to be phased in to allow for sustainable self-suffiency to be relearnt and readopted).
Coffee and pineapples would get pretty damn scarce after a while. Once a sustainable system (or as close as we can get) is in place then the issue of global trade could be reassessed in the hope of finding a way of carrying it out that doesn’t compromise local food supply chains (I can’t envision it myself, but maybe it can be sorted).
The priority, however, would be to establish those local systems and maintain them in perpetuity. Basic biological necessity always trumps economic considerations on a planet where I’m God-Emperor.
]]> Before imported cotton it was about 300 BC for England, 2000 BC for Crete.
Badger-skin breech-clout sir? Suits you.
" it is my firm belief that discrete geographical areas should all be self-sufficient with respect to essentials (food, clothing, etc)"
Bugger that. Have I had my last cup of coffee? Eaten my last pineapple?
]]>It’s really not you know. Not unless it’s your contention that Europeans were all naked prior to imported cotton. I am (of course) being a tad simplistic about this.
Nonetheless it is my firm belief that discrete geographical areas should all be self-sufficient with respect to essentials (food, clothing, etc) and that long-distance trade should be minimised as part of a wider policy of sustainability.
]]>Well, cotton doesn’t grow in Europe – yet. The choice is ship the cotton or ship the t-shirts.
]]>However, the coal the Chinese burn for industrial production is in China. It can only efficiently be used for China’s purposes, not by Italian factories. And I’m genuinely not sure how much energy it uses to ship a t-shirt to the UK, but container shipping is approximately the most fuel-efficient form of transport that there is. It wouldn’t surprise me overmuch if sending t-shirts by boat from China used less diesel than sending them by lorry from Italy (if anyone knows more about this, speak now – otherwise I might actually have to look it up…)
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