Does eating local food reduce the environmental impact of food production and enhance consumer health?

Proceedings of the Nutrition Society

Volumn 69, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 582-591

  Edwards Jones, Gareth ^a  

^a BANGOR UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Carbon footprint; Climate change; Food; security

Indexed keywords

CARBON DIOXIDE; CHLORIDE; NITROGEN OXIDE; SUGAR;

BACTERIUM; BROCCOLI; CARBON FOOTPRINT; CLIMATE; CLIMATE CHANGE; CONFERENCE PAPER; CONSUMER; CROP; EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE; FOOD INDUSTRY; FOOD INTAKE; FOOD SECURITY; FOOD STORAGE; FUNGUS; GREENHOUSE GAS; HEALTH; HUMAN; INVERTEBRATE; LAMB; LETTUCE; PRODUCT SAFETY; PROTOZOON; VEGETABLE;

AGRICULTURE; CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES; DIET; ENVIRONMENT; FOOD SUPPLY; GREAT BRITAIN; GREENHOUSE EFFECT; HEALTH; HEALTH FOOD; HUMANS; PUBLIC POLICY; TRANSPORTATION;

EID: 79951941802     PISSN: 00296651     EISSN: 14752719     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0029665110002004     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (60)

1. Friel S, Dangour AD, Garnett T et al. (2009) Health and Climate Change 4. Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: food and agriculture. The Lancet 374 (9706), 2016-2025.
2. Stehfest E, Bouwman L, van Vuuren D et al. (2009) Climate benefits of changing diet. Climatic Change 95, 83-102.
3. Frith M (2005) How far has your Christmas dinner travelled? Article in The Independent dated 24 December 2005. http:// news.independent.co.uk/uk/this- britain/article335011.ece (accessed 26 June 2007).
4. Hamilton A (2006) Christmas lunch will fly 84,000 miles to your table. Article in The Times dated 20 November 2006. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ news/uk/article642552.ece (accessed 26 June 2007).
5. Usbourne S (2009) Inconvenient truths: Dońt believe the greenwash. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/greenliving/ inconvenient-truths-dont- believe-the-greenwash (accessed 7 December 2009).
6. Webster B (2009) Dr Rowan Williams: Dig for victory over climate change and grow your own food́. http://www. timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/ earth-environment/article6872027.ece (accessed 7 December 2009).
7. Norberg-Hodge H, Merrifield T, Gorelick S (2002). Bringing the Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness. London: Zed Books.
8. Morgan K, Marsden T, Murdoch J (2006). Worlds of Food. Place, Power and Provenance in the Food Chain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9. Edwards-Jones G, Milà i Canals L, Hounsome N et al. (2008) Testing the assertion that local food is best́: the challenges of an evidence based approach. Trends Food Sci Technol 19, 265-274. (Pubitemid 351514905)
10. Wikipedia (2009) Entry on local food́. http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/ (accessed 7 December 2009).
11. Hinrichs CC (2003) The practice and politics of food system localization. J Rural Stud 19, 33-45.
12. Institute of Grocery Distribution (2006) Retail and Foodservice Opportunities for Local Food, pp. 48. Watford, UK: IGD.
13. Feagan R (2007) The place of food: mapping out the locaĺ in local food systems. Prog Hum Geography 31, 23-42.
14. Freibauer A (2003) Regionalised inventory of biogenic greenhouse gas emissions from European agriculture. Eur J Agron 19, 135-160. (Pubitemid 36536530)
15. Kasimir-Klemedtsson A, Klemedtsson L, Berglund K et al. (1997) Greenhouse gas emissions from farmed organic soils: a review. Soil Use Manage 13, 245-250. (Pubitemid 28065462)
16. IPCC (2006) 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme [HS Eggleston, L Buendia, K Miwa, T Ngara and K Tanabe, editors]. Kanagawa, Japan: IGES.
17. Edwards-Jones G, Plassmann K, Harris IM (2009) Carbon footprinting of lamb and beef production systems: insights from an empirical analysis of farms in Wales. J Agric Sci 147, 1-13.
18. Lilly A, Bal BC, McTaggart IP et al. (2009) Spatial modelling of nitrous oxide emissions at the national scale using soil, climate and land use information. Global Change Biol 15, 2321-2332.
19. Koerber GR, Edwards-Jones G, Hill PW et al. (2009) Geographical variation in carbon dioxide fluxes from soils in agro-ecosystems and its implications for life cycle assessment. J Appl Ecol 46, 306-314.
20. Bibby J, Mackney D (1969) Land Use Capability Classification. Soil Survey Technical Monograph No. 1. Harpenden, UK: Rothemsted Experimental Station.
21. Williams CL, Liebman M, Edwards JW et al. (2008) Patterns of regional yield stability in association with regional environmental characteristics. Crop Sci 48, 1545-1559.
22. Defra (2008) Agriculture in the United Kingdom. http://statistics.defra. gov.uk/esg/publications/auk/2008/AUK2008. pdf (accessed 8 December 2009).
23. Anderson WK, Smith WR (1990) Increasing wheat yields in a high rainfall area of Western Australia. Aust J Exp Agric 30, 607-614.
24. de Snoo GR (2006) Benchmarking the environmental performances of farms. Int J Life Cycle Assess 11, 22-25. (Pubitemid 43128788)
25. Kaiser RM, Shaver RD (2006) Benchmarking high producing herds. Adv Dairy Tech 18, 18179-18190.
26. Carbon Trust (2007). Carbon Footprint Measurement Methodology, Version 1.3. London: The Carbon Trust.
27. Brenton P, Edwards-Jones G, Jensen MF et al. (2009) Carbon Footprints and Food Systems: Do Current Accounting Methodologies Disadvantage Developing Countries? Unpublished Report to the World Bank, June 2009.
28. Calm JM (2008) The next generation of refrigerants - historical review, considerations, and outlook. Int J Refrigeration 31, 1123-1133.
29. Edwards-Jones G, Plassmann K, York EH et al. (2009) Vulnerability of exporting nations to the development of a carbon label in the United Kingdom. Environ Sci Policy 12, 479-490.
30. Williams AG, Pell E, Webb J et al. (2008) Final Report for DEFRA Project FO0103, Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Food Commodities Procured for UK Consumption through a Diversity of Supply Chains. http://randd.defra.gov.uk/ (accessed 8 December 2009).
31. Hospido A, Milà i Canals L, McLaren SJ et al. (2009) The role of seasonality in lettuce consumption: a case study of environmental and social aspects. Int Rev Life Cycle Assess 14, 381-391.
32. Milà i Canals L, Muñoz I, Hospido A et al. (2008) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Domestic vs. Imported Vegetables. Case Studies on Broccoli, Salad Crops and Green Beans. CES Working Paper 01/08. ISSN: 1464-8083.
33. Migros. http://www.migros.ch/DE/Ueber-die-Migros/ Nachhaltigkeit/ Produkte-Labels/CO2-Produktdeklaration/ Seiten/Uebersichtsseite.aspx
34. BSI (2008) PAS 2050:2008. Specification for the Assessment of the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Goods and Services. London, UK: British Standards.
35. British Sugar. http://www.britishsugar.co.uk (accessed 8 December 2009).
36. Stratmann B, Teufel J, Wiegmann K (2008) Umweltauswirkungen von Ernährungsgewohnheiten. Freiburg, Germany:Öko-Institut e.V.
37. Subak S (1999) Global environmental costs of beef production. Ecolog Econ 30, 79-91. (Pubitemid 29347720)
38. Casey JW, Holden NM (2006). Quantification of GHG emissions from suckler-beef production in Ireland. Agric Syst 90, 79-98. (Pubitemid 43946600)
39. Plassmann K, Edwards-Jones G (2010) Carbon footprinting and carbon labelling of food products. In: Environmental Assessment and Management in the Food Industry, pp. 272-294. [U Sonesson, J Berlin and F Ziegler, editors]. Cambridge, UK: Woodhead Publishing Ltd.
40. Hounsome N, Hounsome B, Tomos AD et al. (2008). Nutritional quality of vegetables: an overview of plant compounds and analytical technologies. J Food Sci 73, R48-R65. (Pubitemid 351629805)
41. Kumar S, Imtiyaz M, Kumar A (2007) Effect of differential soil moisture and nutrient regimes on postharvest attributes of onion (Allium cepa L.). Sci Horticulturae 112, 121-129. (Pubitemid 46349429)
42. Goldman IL, Kader AA, Heintz C (1999) Influence of production, handling, and storage on phytonutrient content of foods. Nutr Rev 57, S46-S52. (Pubitemid 29514059)
43. Boettcher H (1992) Quality changes of onions (Allium cepa L.) during storage: Part 1. Nutritional quality. Nahrung 36, 346-356.
44. Marwaha RS, Kumar D, Singh SV et al. (2009) Chipping and nutritional qualities of Indian and exotic potato processing varieties stored under different conditions. J Food Sci Technol 46, 354-358.
45. Tahir I, Johansson E, Olsson ME (2009) Improvement of apple quality and storability by a combination of heat treatment and controlled atmosphere storage. HortScience 44, 1648-1654.
46. Hounsome N, Hounsome B, Tomos D et al. (2009) Changes in antioxidant compounds in white cabbage during winter storage. Postharvest Biol Technol 52, 173-179.
47. Tosun BN, Yucecan S (2008) Influence of commercial freezing and storage on vitamin C content of some vegetables. Int J Food Sci Technol 43, 316-321. (Pubitemid 351160837)
48. Lin S, Brewer MS (2005) Effects of blanching method on the quality characteristics of frozen peas. J Food Qual 28, 350-360. (Pubitemid 41616814)
49. Rungapamestry V, Duncan AJ, Fuller Z et al. (2007) Influence of blanching and freezing broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) prior to storage and cooking on glucosinolate concentrations and myrosinase activity. Eur Food Res Technol 227, 37-44. (Pubitemid 351491073)
50. Goncalves EM, Cruz RMS, Abreu M et al. (2009) Biochemical and colour changes of watercress (Nasturtium officinale R. Br.) during freezing and frozen storage. J Food Eng 93, 32-39.
51. Rickman JC, Barrett DM, Bruhn CM (2007) Nutritional comparison of fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables. Part 1. Vitamins C and B and phenolic compounds. J Sci Food Agric 87, 930-944. (Pubitemid 46661499)
52. Sablani SS (2006) Drying of fruits and vegetables: retention of nutritional/functional quality. Drying Technol 24, 123-135.
53. Tosun BN, Yucecan S (2008) Influence of commercial freezing and storage on vitamin C content of some vegetables. Int J Food Sci Technol 43, 316-321. (Pubitemid 351160837)
54. DEFRA (2006) Food Security and the UK: An Evidence and Analysis Paper. https://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/reports/ foodsecurity/foodsecurity.pdf (accessed 8 December 2009).
55. Plassmann K, Edwards-Jones G (2009) Where Does the Carbon Footprint Fall? Developing a Carbon Map of Food Production. London: IIED.
56. Brenton P, Edwards-Jones G, Jensen MF (2009) Carbon labelling and low income country exports: a review of the development issues. Dev Policy Rev 27, 243-265.
57. Cross P, Edwards RT, Opondo M et al. (2009) The health impacts to farm workers of buying local food. Environ Intl 35, 1004-1014.
58. RCEP (2002). The Environmental Effects of Civil Aircraft in Flight - Special Report. UK: Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.
59. Spielmann M, Kägi T, Tietje O (2004). Life cycle inventories of transport services. Final Report Ecoinvent 2000, No. 14. Duebendorf, Switzerland: Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, for Ecoinvent Members Only.
60. Milà I, Canals LCowell SJ, Sim S, et al. (2007) Comparing local versus imported apples: a focus on energy use. Environ Sci Pollut Res; 14: 276-282.