IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jsd123/v11y2024i6p47.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Developing a Methodology for Estimating Transport-Related CO2 Emissions for Food Commodities

Author

Listed:
  • Ujue Fresan
  • Helen Harwatt
  • Joan Sabate

Abstract

There is a significant and growing interaction between the transport sector and the food sector as globalized markets continue to increase the demand for ‘food miles’ i.e. the number of miles a food item travels throughout its life cycle. The concept of ‘food miles’ has become interesting to the public and policy makers as a way to assess the relative carbon footprint of food choices. However, there is currently a lack of information available about the transport-related greenhouse gas emissions that would allow to accurately differentiate between food items. To help address these current knowledge gaps, this paper presents a transferable methodological approach to estimating the transport related CO2 emissions of 10 popular food commodities transported from the farm gate to the retailer. The methodology combines GIS, data from the scientific literature and detailed commodity specific data from personal communication with one of the largest food retailers in California. To travel from the farm gate to the retailer, the amounts of CO2 emissions varied amongst the 10 foods, ranging from 47 g CO2/kg oranges, to 78 g CO2/kg almonds. While California was used as a case study, this method would be replicable across other locations and food life cycle assessments.

Suggested Citation

  • Ujue Fresan & Helen Harwatt & Joan Sabate, 2024. "Developing a Methodology for Estimating Transport-Related CO2 Emissions for Food Commodities," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(6), pages 1-47, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:11:y:2024:i:6:p:47
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/download/0/0/37671/38035
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/0/37671
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:11:y:2024:i:6:p:47. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.