Food’s Carbon Footprint – The daily blog of behavioral and cognitive economics

What We Need To Know About Our Asparagus

While many of us associate Planes, Trains, and Automobiles with Steve Martin and John Candy, instead, we should think of asparagus. All we eat acquires some food miles. We need to ask though if those miles are on a train, a plane, or in a truck. The answer helps us determine our food’s carbon footprint. Take asparagus (my favorite). It is likely that the asparagus you ate for dinner came from Peru. For a 10,000 kilometer journey, flying one kilogram between Lima and London emits around 11 kilograms of CO2eq–far more than on a boat. On a boat, the emissions of our less perishables plunge to 0.67 kg CO2eq per kg. Because, like berries, asparagus are in the more perishable category, they had to fly here. ….[READ]