Take a product from your local store. Any product, anything at all. Now, what have you got there? A can of beans? A bag of bananas? Whatever it is - try to figure out its carbon footprint. I'd like to know how much energy was consumed from the conception of that product, through growing, processing, packaging, transport, marketing, and consumption. That's right, just go ahead - here's some pens and paper, and a calculator you can all share. Please figure it out, and I'll be back in a few minutes to see how you've done.
Okay, pens down. What have you got there? I see several of you with completely blank sheets, a couple with some rather cool looking doodles, and the girl in the back has an amazing caricature of me. Hmm... not a lot else....
Stores like Tesco have committed to labeling all their products - showing consumers the amount of carbon emitted during the production, transport and consumption of each of the 70,000 different products it sells. Tesco has admitted that it is not an easy process, and may take years to accomplish.
However, the UK's Minister for the Environment, David Miliband, has announced tentative plans to make baby-steps in this direction:
Government's commitment to work with industry to develop environmental labelling of food, was outlined today by David Miliband, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.Speaking at the National Farmers Union Annual Conference in Birmingham, he said:
“Environmental quality is becoming an important factor in consumers' decisions alongside nutritional quality and price. I can envisage the next step where, as well as nutritional standards, environmental standards become the norm on food packaging.
“This is not an easy piece of work and will take time, particularly if this includes the whole lifecycle impact of food from production to distribution. In the shorter term, we want to develop environmental standards for food production. This could cover a range of factors including energy inputs, fertiliser use, soil management, waste management and water pollution.
“I want Defra to work with producers, retailers, environmental organisations and existing assurance bodies on whether we can agree on a green standard, that informs and empowers consumers and gives farmers recognition in the marketplace.” - Defra
