Between 44% and 57% of all GHG emissions come from the global food system
Deforestation: 15-18%
Before the planting starts, the bulldozers do their job. Worldwide, industrial agriculture is pushing into savannas, wetlands and forests, ploughing under huge amounts of land.
The FAO says the expansion of the agricultural frontier accounts for
70-90% of global deforestation, at least half of that for the production
of a few agricultural commodities for export. Agriculture's
contribution to deforestation thus accounts for 15-18% of global GHG
emissions.Farming: 11-15%
It is generally acknowledged that farming itself contributes 11-15% of
all greenhouse gasses produced globally. Most of these emissions result
from the use of industrial inputs, such as chemical fertilisers and
petrol to run tractors and irrigation machinery, as well as the excess
manure generated by intensive livestock keeping.Transport: 5-6%
The industrial food system acts like a global travel agency. Crops for
animal feed may be grown in Argentina and fed to chickens in Chile that
are exported to China for processing and eventually eaten in a
McDonald's in the US. Much of our food, grown under industrial
conditions in faraway places, travels thousands of kilometres before it
reaches our plates. We can conservatively estimate that the
transportation of food accounts for a quarter of global GHG emissions
linked to transportation, or 5-6% of all global GHG emissions.Processing & packaging: 8-10%
Processing is the next, highly profitable, step in the industrial food
chain. The transformation of foods into ready-made meals, snacks and
beverages requires an enormous amount of energy, mostly in the form of
carbon. So does the packaging and canning of these foods. Processing and
packaging enables the food industry to stack the shelves of
supermarkets and convenience stores with hundreds of different formats
and brands, but it also generates a huge amount of greenhouse gas
emissions – some 8 to 10% of the global total.Freezing & Retail: 2-4%
Refrigeration is the lynchpin of the modern supermarket and fast food
chains' vast global procurement systems. Wherever the industrial food
system goes, so do cold chains. Considering that cooling is responsible
for 15 percent of all electricity consumption worldwide, and that leaks
of chemical refrigerants are a major source of GHGs, we can safely say
that the refrigeration of foods accounts for some 1-2% of all global
greenhouse gas emissions. The retailing of foods accounts for another
1-2%.Waste: 3-4%
The industrial food system discards up to half of all the food that it
produces, thrown out on the long journey from farms to traders, to food
processors, and eventually to retailers and restaurants. A lot of this
waste rots on garbage heaps and landfills, producing substantial amounts
of GHGs. Between 3.5-4.5% of global GHG emissions come from waste, and
over 90% of these are produced by materials originating within the food
system.from here
4 comments:
Are you for or against, if you are not for it, seem to taking a Green Party approach against GM which surprises me from SPGB, what do you say ! :-) ! .... ! :-) :-) :-) !
There has been plenty of political groups and writers who identify the many problems of capitalism and within their critiques there is frequently worthwhile information to be gleaned. After all, Marx used the parliamentary blue books to acquire much of his data. The article is a re-posting of how the prevalent method of food production is flawed and contributes to emissions and global warming. However the SPGB and many environmentalists of the Green Party type hold contesting views on solutions. The article you comment upon failed to highlight those. But i think you know our SPGB policy very well what we propose as the means to addressing these problems...the abolition of the capitalism , and thus with it, the market, the profit system, the price mechanism, wages, and money. Without those "policies" expecting capitalism to successfully tackle its inherent weaknesses is a dream
Thank you for agreeing on the contesting views of Green Party England and Wales and SPGB on food production and industrial agriculture, I think had to be made clear, rather then Neo - Feudalism of evironmentalists, no threat to my existing way of living then !
"no threat to my existing way of living then"
Oh, personally, i wouldn't go as far as say that, James ;-p
While we oppose the primativism of who Bookchin called the Deep Greens and do not advocate a future of puritanical abstinence i speculate that some taken-for-granted products will disappear and will require substitution.
See the debate we are conducting on our forum and my own individual opinions (emphasising that they are not SPGB principles and merely a discussion thread with people disagreeing...well, me mostly). You are very welcome to contribute to the debate and we would be delighted if you did, once you register.
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/general-discussion/marxist-animalism
It is unfortunate for the SOYMB blog that in every-time we come across an interesting article or point of view that is useful in making the case for socialism but doesn't go far enough to be fully acceptable, we require to add our caveats...Often we are careless and neglect to do so, from a fear of repetition, and this does lead to ambiguity arising which you rightly indicate can be the case. Its useful when we get comments on the blog from sympathisers or critics who get us to spell things out more clearly or clarify any confused remarks we make.
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