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Why We Pay Too Little for Well Travelled Food
Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, The Tyee
Charging the true cost of “food miles” could change the way people eat. Fourth in a series
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Walk into a supermarket and look at the pile of tomatoes. Maybe they’re from BC or Washington; maybe they’re from Mexico. Chances are, either way, they’re about $3 per pound. How does produce that has travelled thousands of kilometers end up retailing for no more than the local goods-and sometimes for even less?
There are a lot of complicated equations at work here, from economies of scale to labour costs to the pricing power of trend-setting agricultural giants like California. One area that is often overlooked, however, is the realm of “externalities”-the term economists use to describe the costs (or benefits) of producing an item that affect people other than the producers themselves. Externalities are typically not reflected in prices. The Economist magazine calls this a form of market failure, as well they might.
In terms of our sample tomato, those hidden costs might include government tax breaks and subsidies to oil companies (which reduce costs of chemical fertilizer, shipping and packaging); government-funded water diversion projects; subsidies to industrial agriculture; support of expensive highway systems; and the downstream costs of agrochemical pollution, such as health care and water purification.
Who pays the price for all of that? We all do, though our taxes. Where we don’t pay for it is at the supermarket till when they ring through our $3-a-pound tomato.
(12 August 2005)
The latest in an excellent series on eating locally. Links to the three previous articles are available at the original article.
Depopulation — myth or reality?
Sara Seims, SF Chronicle
…For these people [in developing countries], and not just in Africa, reality is desperate poverty, teeming slums without sanitation or clean water, and children’s playgrounds that are garbage dumps and open sewers, not swing-sets. More than 1 billion young people — most of them in poor countries — are now entering their reproductive years. Their childbearing decisions will shape the future for all of us, so they need family-planning information and services right now if they are to make responsible choices in their own best interests.
But this need is not being met. According to the World Health Organization, at least 120 million women say they would space or limit their children but lack access to family-planning options that wealthy nations take for granted. The result: Too many pregnancies are unwanted and high risk, not supported by even basic health care. Many end in gruesome and dangerous abortions. Every minute of every day, a woman dies of a pregnancy-related complication, WHO data show. These 585,000 deaths a year are almost all preventable. Family planning, far from being a solution to yesterday’s problem, is more urgent now than ever on the poor side of the demographic divide.
Sara Seims, Ph.D., directs the population program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (www.hewlett.org/Programs/Population/) in Menlo Park.
(15 August 2005)
Eco-Friendly Burial Sites Give a Chance to Be Green Forever
Patricia Leigh Brown, NY Times
…The generation of composters who wrote their own wedding vows and opted for natural childbirth is expected to look for something different in death, as a lead character in the HBO series “Six Feet Under” did recently, receiving a green burial in a wooded nature preserve.
“There is a huge generation of people entering accelerated mortality who grew up with the first Earth Day,” said Dr. Campbell, who started his eco-cemetery after he was left cold by the prepackaged funeral for his father. “People are ready for something more meaningful.”
(13 August 2005)
We Wuz Rob’d!
Rob Elam, biodiesel buff, answers Grist’s questions
Rob Elam, Grist Magazine
Q: What work do you do?
A: I’m a cofounder of Propel Fuels, a biodiesel services and distribution firm. Biodiesel is a vegetable-oil based fuel for diesel engines. Using it significantly reduces greenhouse-gas and particulate-matter emissions.
(15 August 2005)
Philipines: Senate roused to pass energy-saving bills
Patricia P. Esteves, Manila Times
SEN. Edgardo Angara on Sunday rallied the Senate to pass energy measures that will endorse renewable and indigenous sources of energy to help the government cope with a looming oil crisis.
Crude oil price in the world market soared this week to an all-time high of $67 a barrel, prompting President Arroyo to urge the people to conserve energy.
Angara said it’s high time Congress and the government draw up long-term measures to head off the oil crisis.
“A better way to address the oil crisis is to develop and improve our renewable energy like the bio-mass and ethanol mixed with gasoline. We should also develop coco diesel and tap energy sources from the wind and the sun,” Angara said in a telephone interview.
He said the country is a good source of wind and solar energy. “We have one of the largest source of solar energy in the world,” Angara said.
(15 August 2005)
Experimental hybrid cars get up to 250 mpg
Tim Molloy, Associated Press via BusinessWeek (and many others)
AUG. 14 12:26 A.M. ET Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away. Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.
It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret — a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car’s high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel.
Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car.
(14 August 2005)
This article must have hit a nerve — over 200 media outlets picked up this Associated Press story, according to GoogleNews. Meanwhile the gang over at Gristmill has some critical analysis on the “Flying Brick”.
Facing Our Energy Dependency
Feds can follow local lead to reduce global warming
James Barrett, SF Chronicle (opinion)
As one of top 10 economies in the world, the spin-offs for new energy and other industries in California will create the momentum necessary to build an economy that is both lean and green, more efficient and more competitive in growing international markets. By building international cooperation on climate change, California — along with Canada, New York, New Jersey and the New England states — may follow the European Union’s carbon-dioxide emissions trading market that is already up and running….
James Barrett is director of the Sustainable Economics Program at Oakland’s Redefining Progress (www.rprogress.org).
(15 August 2005)
