For my breakfast I had some Save-on brand Crunchy Granola with Dairyland Milk. The Crunchy Granola was listed as being prepared in Vancouver– which makes the distance we are dealing with a lot shorter. The main ingredients included things which could theoretically be grown locally or within a province– such as raspberries and blueberries. The whole grain oats and flour used in the cereal likely came from the prairies. Such ingredients likely arrived via rail car where it was baked in Vancouver. This is a relatively efficient way to ship goods, but still uses fossil fuels.
The sugar used in the cereal could come from either far abroad. Typically South America, Central America, or Australia. It could also come from sugar beet in Alberta(1). There was no indication on the package as to where the sugar came from.
Dairyland Milk, headquarted in Quebec (indicated on packaging), did not indicate what province the milk was produced in so it theoretically could be coming as far as Quebec– nearly 4500 km away! This is similar in fuel consumption to my Tim Horton’s I had for lunch later in the day.
Both included paper based packaging– which could have come from local forests in BC– as well as waxed paper based waterproofing and a plastic bag to hold the cereal. The waxed paper and plastic bag are direct petroleum products.
- http://www.sugar.ca/english/canadiansugarindustry/industrystatistics.cfm