Overall, I found this blog very fascinating! I would like to share a few of the revelations that I came to while writing the blog:
1. The extent to which the location of the food matters (in term of fossil fuels). Often I pay close attention to whether or not something is Oceanwise or organic, as well trying to bike or drive a short distance to my local supermarket to get food. However in terms of food being local, I would say that before the blog, as long as it wasn’t outside of North America I thought I was doing a pretty good job with minimizing fuel consumption related to transportation. Mapping the areas out reminded me that North America is a pretty big place that is very interconnected agriculturally, so in the future I will definitely try to be more informed on where my food is coming from.
2. Information about the oil used in the processing aspects of food is very difficult to find. I would attribute this largely to how interconnected and complex each aspect of the food production process is right now. For example, it was exceedingly difficult to figure out which industrial refrigeration company the egg farm used, let alone the amount of energy that particular fridge uses in a certain time period and how much of that energy can be attributed to fossil fuel. Given the comparitively simple measurements for fuel efficiency in cars, oil used in transportation was much easier to estimate.
3. Fish, if caught wild, locally, and with little processing, are probably a better option in terms of fuel consumption in comparison to other meats.
Thanks for reading my blog, and I hope you found it interesting!