Guest Editorial

Food Miles and Horticultural Trade

Feeling guilty – of course you are! You have just purchased some roses in your local supermarket that have been flown half-way round the World, and you have been told repeatedly that this is a bad thing. They have left a large “carbon footprint” and you have been told by pundits in the media that you have heedlessly contributed to global warming. The arguments for and against airfreight are the same whether you bought fine beans from Kenya, mange-tout from Guatemala, or baby corn from Thailand. However the position about airfreight and horticultural trade is often misrepresented and over-simplified.

The consumer in Northern Europe who wants to purchase roses as a cut flower has three options. Firstly, they can buy those grown locally, which would have been produced in a heated greenhouse, possibly in The Netherlands. Alternatively, they could buy roses grown in Kenya and airfreighted to Europe. In 2004, a Dutch study suggested that heating the greenhouse contributed 670 g of CO₂ per rose stem, but airfreighting of the Kenyan rose contributed 335 g of CO₂ per rose stem, while a more recent study by Cranfield University of the complete growing and transport chain for roses showed that a rose in Kenya produced 5.8-times less CO₂ than a rose grown in The Netherlands. The other option, of course, is for the consumer to choose not to purchase any roses. But this seems a bit severe, since the rose is symbolic of love and affection, and the flower of choice for events such as St. Valentine’s Day. Certainly our lives, especially in the northern hemisphere, would be far more bland without the choice of “exotics” on our supermarket shelves, and consumers should have the right of choice in these matters.

However carbon emissions are not the only factor in this equation. Crops grown “under the sun” are situated in Developing countries (www.grownunderthesun.com) and contribute significantly to the alleviation of local poverty. Kenya exported 18,650 tonnes of cut flowers to the EU in 2006, and horticulture directly employed 135,000 people in a country where unemployment runs at over 50%. Every employed person in Kenya is considered to provide support for ten members of their extended family. Therefore at least one million people are deriving benefit from high-value horticultural exports. And not included in this equation are those people employed in various allied service industries. From my own Company’s perspective, 90% of our business is based on serving the horticultural export industry, and we employ over 80 Kenyans who would not have jobs without such an export industry. From a wider perspective, if there was a 1% increase in Africa’s share of global trade, this would deliver seven-times more than the present total aid budget for Africa.

To the average Kenyan, those in Europe who advocate not purchasing Kenyan roses because of airfreight seem disingenuous. Firstly, the amount of CO₂ that airfreight contributes is as little as 0.1% of total UK carbon emissions. Secondly, the UK emits 9 tonnes of CO₂ per person per year, while the Kenyan per capita emission is 0.3 tonnes of CO₂ per person per year (www.coleacp.org/pip). Nevertheless, a debate on CO₂ emissions and food miles is important, but the real contribution of transporting horticultural produce to global warming is complex, not easy to quantify, and needs more research. For instance, much horticultural produce is transported on scheduled passenger planes, and removing the horticultural produce from the cargo-hold will not ground these planes.

What can horticultural science contribute? One important area is in improving the storage-life of fresh produce, thereby enabling such produce to be transported by sea, which is still emits CO₂, but less CO₂ per kg of product per mile than airfreight. Through an improved understanding of post-harvest physiological processes, the length of time for which a crop can remain in the transport chain can be extended. For example, through breeding and selecting appropriate varieties and by improving modified or controlled atmosphere shipping conditions, many fruits can now be transported to northern Europe by sea. In future, target crops for sea shipment might include vegetables and certain flowers such as carnations.

Implementing measures which could reduce carbon emissions is important, but we should also consider the wider issues of fair-trade, ethical employment, environmental protection, and product safety. Through this, concerned consumers can buy with a clear conscience, while also contributing positively to the income of so many families in the Developing World. And, if you are still concerned or feeling guilty about carbon emissions and global warming, you might have a greater impact by turning the central heating down by one degree!

Dr. Henry Wainwright