Which is the more eco-friendly purchase:
- an imported product produced with sustainability in mind, OR
- a locally made one which may or may not have taken sustainability into consideration?
I’ve wondered about this for the longest time – especially since the whole “buy local” movement kicked in. I’ll admit I never really searched hard to find the answer, probably because I like things from all over the world! I also enjoy buying things from individuals and small businesses, because I secretly hope that maybe I’m helping to support someone’s dream, but that doesn’t equate to buying local either. And isn’t buying local just the tiniest first baby step towards protectionism? Possibly the only thing that would have made me truly try go local, was if someone showed me that there was a huge environmental benefit there. (Ya, I was sooooo keen to go local.)
Anyway, 2 days ago, this study on “food miles” came through in one of my RSS reads. And I really hope that these guys are right, because then I don’t have to feel guilty every time I buy something imported.
Though the study is based on food consumption in American households and other correlating data from 1997, I reckon it must make some sense. Basically, they tried to work out how much greenhouse gas is emitted during the entire process – starting from pre-production activities like transporting equipment to the production facility, to the point where the item appears in the supermarket. And the authors’ conclusion was that:
… dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household’s food-related climate footprint than “buying local.”
Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food.
Well, the good thing is, red meat hasn’t been on my menu this year (except twice! accidentally!!!). Trying to drop dairy is a bit more challenging – milk no problem, but CHEESE. OMG Cheese. Sorry, I digress.
What I really wanted to know is how transportation factors in in terms of the climate footprint, I’m going to assume these guys are right (till the next piece of research says otherwise) and not worry about buying local.
And I know their analysis is based on food, but since I can’t imagine that producing metal/plastic products will produce less greenhouse emissions than producing red meat and whatnot, I’m going to take a leap and assume it’s far more important to support organic, eco-friendly and fair trade businesses, wherever they may be, than to buy local. You can say I’m buying into this because it supports my worldview, but seriously, would you rather buy a good, consciously-produced, imported product, or a crappy local one? In the end though, the best solution is to STOP BUYING SO MANY THINGS! (That’s a reminder to myself. Believe me, I’m trying real hard.)
So let’s see… what should be my priorities when shopping:
- Don’t buy. Period.
- Re-purpose stuff I already have;
- Borrow/rent if I don’t need it forever;
- Buy secondhand whenever possible (except no secondhand undies etc for me! YUCKS!);
- Buy local eco-friendly / organic / fair trade;
- Buy imported eco-friendly / organic / fair trade;
- Buy local whatever;
- Buy imported whatever.
Now to burn this into my brain. :)
p.s. I hate that no information can be trusted (I’ve been like this since I was 18 and Paula Begoun singlehandedly destroyed the cosmetics and skincare industry for me). Do you think these guys have shares in transportation companies and veggie producers???
p.p.s. I wonder if it’s more eco-friendly to stay home or go out and do stuff.