by Luke Rajczuk
Courtesy of ScottishFarmers
It is getting more and more popular for the Scottish country side to produce and buy local foods. Peebles is a great example of how people take initiative producing and using foods only from the area of 50 miles radius from where they live.
Local food is on everyone’s agenda, from Transition initiatives to government policy makers. More and more people are aware that we need to develop a much more local, non-oil and chemical reliant food infrastructure as a matter of urgency, because the present system is forcing us up hard against the limits of the global eco-system, manifesting as climate change, peak oil, peak phosphorous and a host of others.
When we eat local food we are more likely to be eating fresh food which is in season – and this keeps us in touch with the natural world around us Eating local food supports local livelihoods in the food and farming sector, and the money we spend on local food tends to get recycled in our own community – but it is also important to support the livelihoods of producers in developing countries Local food often has a lower carbon footprint – not just because of the energy used to transport food but also because it uses less energy in refrigeration, processing and packaging. (Latest figures from the Food and Climate Research Network suggest that about 12% of our total ‘foodprint’ comes between the farm gate and our own cooking and storage at home) More importantly, local food is not damaging the environment somewhere out of sight. WWF research shows that 40% of our foodprint in the UK comes from deforestation in other countries to produce commodities such as beef, soya and palm oil. When we buy local food we can see for ourselves if it is being grown in a sustainable way which is helping the environment and biodiversity.
Is local better than organic? No – at least not from the point of view of climate change and sustainability. Organic crops have under half the carbon footprint of non-organic crops because they do not rely on the use of factory-made nitrogen. Making nitrogen in a factory uses significant amounts of fossil fuel, and the application of fertiliser can also create emissions of nitrous oxide (a powerful greenhouse gas). In all 3-4% of total UK emissions come from use of artificial nitrogen – considerably more than from air travel.
The 50:50 project seems to be improving our environment along with encouraging people to buy locally which is a benefit to the Scottish economy and great injection of motivation for farmers to fulfill the need of consumers.
