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Food miles & Kenyan growers
Interesting article in our newspaper this morning about air miles and
environmental impact. I can see both sides of the argument however it does show hom simplistic simply gauging things by food miles is. A far better determinant is total energy consumption or environmental footprint from ground to market. That provides an overall assessment. Will be difficult to develop a comprehensive calculation I reckon. This is not to say that efforts should not be made in calculating the environmental impact of food, more that a robust system needs to be developed before dignificant actions be taken. rob http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/s...451695&ref=rss In floppy hats and gumboots, Kenya's Kikuyu farmers are preparing for war with Britain. There isn't an AK-47 in sight, though there are plenty of organic cucumbers, carrots, french beans and cauliflowers. It's a battle over who is to blame for climate change - poor African farmers who export their produce by air, or Western consumers who care about the environmental impact of "food miles". "Who emits more greenhouse gases?" asks Charles Kimani among his avocado trees. "A Kenyan or a Briton?" The average Briton emits 30 times more carbon than a Kenyan, according to World Bank figures - or 9.4 tonnes of CO2 compared with 0.3 tonnes. Behind the furore is the proposal by the UK's Soil Association, which campaigns for organic food, organic farming and sustainable forestry to ban imports of organic produce from poor countries such as Kenya because of their food miles - the carbon emitted by air transport. Starting with a debate in London tomorrow, the SA will hear views on the issue until September, when it may decide to introduce a limited or total ban. A ban would mean labelling air-freighted products so that they effectively lost their organic status due to their food miles. Such a move would destroy the livelihoods of tens of thousands of smallholders across Africa in one of the continent's most enterprising export industries, forcing them back into poverty and subsistence farming. Advertisement Advertisement"A ban on our export market will be death for us," says Mr Kimani, who has put his children through school and college from the profits made from fruit and vegetables on just three hectares of land. Organic produce is the fastest-growth area of Africa's horticultural industry, with cut flowers and other high-value products like dried herbs and essential oils. In Kenya, where two-thirds of people live on less than $1 a day, horticulture is the largest export earner after tourism. The story is much the same in Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. A chain of other industries from packaging to transport firms also rely on horticulture, so the knock-on effect would hurt millions of jobs across the region. The food miles debate deepens the scepticism that many Africans already have towards Western rhetoric about ending poverty in the continent. Most farmers in upcountry Kenyan areas such as Kiambu do not look to increased aid as the way out of poverty. Devout Christians with a tradition of hard work and self-help, Kikuyu farmers see wealth coming from access to lucrative Western markets. "The SA proposal is just another non-tariff barrier to trade among the many that already exist," says Eustace Kiarii, chief of an organisation representing Kenyan organic farmers. Farmers from Kenya and developing countries are not asking for special trade access, but to be allowed to trade competitively." |
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