Transportation

The last step I examined was transportation.

I realized that the food I ate was transported across continents and therefore this process would require enormous inputs of fuel.

The first thing I researched was where my food actually originated from. This is what I came up with: As you can see, I eat a “global” diet. An article in the Guardian explained that while some my menu items are  transported across the world using planes,  responsible for 2% of the global carbon emissions per year, most of my food is probably transported on ships, which are responsible for around 4% of global carbon emissions. (9)

In addition, the article mentioned the emissions from ships do not come under the Kyoto accord (9). These ships are responsible for 90% of the world’s trade and BP’s fleet alone uses 200 million tonnes of fuel each year (9). Imagine then, how much fuel must be used to by all the ships in the world…

Talk about the cost of transport.

Anyways, this is the breakdown of all my food items, where they came from and how they came to me. I should mention that I walked to pick them up from the store. All my food items came from Safeway or Top Ten (a local fruit/veggie store). They’re both about a ten minute walk from my house.