Comments on: Lanarkshire Christmas Dinner

By: S

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:16:43 +0000

The carbon-footprint expert Chris Goodall has a very good article here – well worth a read.

http://www.carboncommentary.com/2007/09/15/7

By: fifediet

fifediet — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:59:12 +0000

Thanks for your comment. You are of course right and these things are complex. For example a vegetarian diet based on soya products may have come from across the world and the soya may have been grown in areas deforested for plantation. So its not always clear-cut and ‘food miles’ is not a simple issue.

I have to agree ‘the most pressing issue of our time is surely climate change’. Some farmers (like Pete Ritchie in Lothian) have started to carbon offset their beef at source, to a local environmental community project. One possible answer.

Mike

By: S

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:31:25 +0000

I think the local diet idea is a great way to get people thinking about food in a more sustainable way.

But the most pressing issue of our time is surely climate change, and the worst food culprits for greenhouse gases emissions are beef, other meats, and dairy products. Sure, eating local and organic beef helps a little bit, but the real solution is to eat less meat, especially beef. Imported lentils have a much smaller carbon footprint than local beef – its a fact.

So if your local diet involves increased red meat consumption, the chances are that it means that your carbon footprint has increased!

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/2007/02/meet_daisy_the_cow_global_climates_enemy_number_on.html