LIKE if we should be more aware of where what we consume comes from; SHARE if you want your friends & family to consider a 'Fully Charged' lifestyle. See full description below... Do you know where your food really comes from? Maddie and Greg are here to investigate 'food miles' and whether buying an apple from New Zealand has a bigger carbon footprint than growing one locally in the UK. Do we need to look beyond the food miles by air, truck and boat to really understand the carbon footprint of the food we are eating? For easy reference through each section of this episode, see *timestamps* below; links to the resources referred to in this episode, are also below. If you enjoyed this, check out this session from Fully Charged LIVE where Maddie talks to an expert panel on the importance of understanding what we are eating - www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaGyd... *Timestamps* 0:00 Introduction to Food Miles 1:17 Shopping for Fresh Fruit & Vegetables 1:49 Food frequently imported from overseas 3:40 Country of Origin labels 4:18 Greg gets researching 6:03 Let's get a local delivery 6:51 But how local is it really? 8:57 Let's go & get our own local food 10:04 Greenhouse Grown? Energy Hungry! 12:36 How & When Food is Grown is key 13:29 Eating Locally & Seasonally 14:40 Home Grown Options 15:36 Carbon Footprint Labelling? 16:10 Maddie & Greg's way forward 17:00 Global Food Waste 17:49 Vegan Easter Egg Resources referred to in the episode: ‘Sustainable Food Systems and the Mediterranean Diet’ - Sept 2019: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... DEFRA Report - July 2005: webarchive.nationalarchives.g... London Mayor’s Food Strategy - May 2006: www.london.gov.uk/sites/defau... Independent Aug 2019: www.independent.co.uk/news/fo... ‘Food Miles, Carbon Footprinting and their potential impact on trade’: researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz... ‘Climate-Smart Food’ by Professor David Reay: www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783... Guardian article on Tesco’s plan to introduce carbon labelling: www.theguardian.com/business/... And one on when they dropped the plan: www.theguardian.com/environme... Independent article on Quorn’s plan to launch carbon labelling: www.independent.co.uk/life-st... Truck, Cargo Ship and Airport icons by Icons8 icons8.com/
KISS, just Google Gardening to start... and stop fixating all this crazy complexity.... Since we have to eat during the Winter too don't we??? That require the use of energy for greenhouses or transportation... Not to mention most ppl eat more than just fruit and vegs too??? But how about"Synergistic" (closed loop) food production, for the future? Where waste from one source is used as resource for something else.. For example manure from can be used or discard such as from aquaculture (or any animal) can fertilize plants... and large building with ppl in them tend to have excess heat that plants need... not to mention ppl tend to be happier if they can see plant in a an office or in an apartment building.. And then sell herbs, vegs and fruit in a cafeteria in the building? And forget about worrying about its exact carbon footprint??? Just a thought.... Nice show... But the narrative was a little skewed to fixating on minor details. And missed the bigger picture of how the production process need to be changed.
@@nc3826 I thought that's what this video said - Keep It Simple S**, grow what you can, think about production costs ie everything you said. Food for winter used to be what families could store themselves - root vegetables, apples etc. Importing more varied produce during the winter is acceptable, still, for most people.
@@Neilhuny This post was great... But I'm just a Simple engineer and it made my head spin trying to keep track of all the parameters expressed in it, on how to just go grocery shopping... And as far was what "used" be, many more ppl got scurvy.... also cool stored foods, loss nutritional value... and I would prefer persevered foods.... such as drying and pickling... but now that we can get fresh foods, all winter long...So personally I will not go back to a time when we had less healthy choices... but to each their own...
I live just a handful of miles South of the equator in Kenya. On my small (11 acres) farm on the shore of Lake Victoria I grow bananas, tomatoes, peppers, melons and some potatoes. Temperature ranges seasonally from 75F to 85F. I have two rainy seasons and draw water from the Lake for the rest of the time with a solar pump. The main local industry is fishing, and I get the waste created by cleaning the fish to make fish emulsion to fertilise my crops, as well as harvesting the plentiful water hyacinth from the Lake to make compost for the soil. My carbon footprint is minimal.. But, note that I grow crops which are suited to my environment, and growing grapes and strawberries in the UK for the market in February is less carbon-footprint-efficient than suffering food miles transport from parts of the world where growing them is better suited. Keep up the good work Maddie and Greg.
This is a fantastic and eye-opening post. I like how you go into these things with open minds and readily accept when your preconceptions turn out to be wrong. The key is to be open to learning, but at the same time be careful about checking the reliability of sources, which you also demonstrate. Keep up the good work!
Which is exactly the reason I grow my own food down the allotment. Negligible growing costs, local food (about a mile away), seasonal and the biggie - better taste. Can't get better than that.
Growing your own is a great answer to the many complexities of carbon footprints. However where many people live, water for growing your own food is itself a complication both in terms of how it is brought or desalinated energy use, but also perhaps who goes without water when it is sucked from a river or diminished aquifer. Best to live where water falls from the sky and food grows sustainably. We need that for 7.5 billion people, but even if half the population achieved that and the one third food waste was halved, we'd be on a better road, don't you think?
I'm lazy. I'd like a 365 days cookbook that covers seasonal food and (back in time) only meat on the weekend. Also add vegetarian alternatives on those weekend days. The Fully Flexitarian Charged Cookbook?
This is why I advocate for the proliferation of vertical farms, at least one per town/village using Hydroponics and Aeroponics predominantly and every "large" residential building having a few floors dedicated to growing food. There's also a point about "heated" farms. These can easily be more energy efficient than non-heated ones as an unusual weather event could easily destroy a crop but be mitigated with climate controls, even though they're not used most of the time (because they focus on seasonal produce for that area). We're still very stuck in the past for food production, a revolution can occur, it's just how long the legacy can continue.
Like it or not this post showed... the new ways to do it, is not "always" the lower CF option... but we all know the "legacy" of SM has been it's all about simple minded meme, instead the complex multifaceted approach that is messy real world answer.... so good luck with that :)
Vertical farms are the future. I re ad that if the current crop lands were converted to vertical farms, it would produce enough food for 34 TRILLION people. So you can imagine just how much land we could give back to nature, if all we needed to do is feed a measly 8 billion with vertical farms! :-)
@@callumoakey3753 Actually they are more energy efficient, when viewed holistically. The land freed up from traditional farming can be repurposed for solar and scrub land, the building itself can be covered with solar panels, using integrated light tunnels to distribute daylight throughout, let alone the enormous reduction in water usage and chemical runoff "costs". There's still a whole bunch of stuff that we can't grow much more efficiently than current practices, but those products won't be such a hindrance, once we've shifted what we can.
You pair are adorable, clearly passionate and well informed. I'd love to see this widely broadcast around schools and on mainstream TV. It's lifestyle education we are sadly missing presented in a friendly, non preaching way. Loved it!
This is nothing new Gregg Wallace and other 'celebrity' food gurus have been advocating this for years it's only because the british public at large don't garden anymore they do not realise what uk food seasons are and assume strawberries at Christmas is normal
Great video. It is a difficult and not straightforward topic. We had a local food goup (UK) a few years ago, to buy & distribute seasonal food from an ideal 50mile radius of our town. It was not easy! Local cliamate limited the food ranges, but eventually other local businesses started to sell from the same producers, and the group was closed as it was no longer needed. Great result! In the Netherlands our friends have a share of a farm co-op where many families have invested into their own small farm, employing a farmer, with the aim of growing as much produce that they can to subsidise the supermarket shop as best as possible & lower food miles. I would be interested in hearing more about schemes like this from where ever they are.
Love this, I had no idea transport was only 6℅ of the carbon footprint of food and that looking for where things are in season around the world could be better than UK grown. I have so much to learn....
Very good - much more thorough than the usual "buy local" mantra. In addition to what you covered, some foods have an inherently higher carbon footprint than others (like beef vs. pork vs. poultry).
@@CurdinGees74 As I said, "in addition to what you covered...". Not everybody is vegan; some people eat close to a natural human diet (and yet others eat far too much meat.)
This is a very solid, well researched and good - to - watch video about a topic that everyone is experiencing every day - and it is great to learn about it. Unfortunate I had no commercials around it, so the big company running this service does not like it. And that is a shame for that company. So I am really considering doing the Patreon support - as soon as the "double plus cold" effects vanish and I can afford it. Very good work, fully charged show team! Please go ahead with it.
Whilst I have known the general food facts for years, eg, transportation CO2, heating CO2, fertiliser CO2, there were several details that were great for refreshing the tired brain cells. Excellent video, and I'm sure an eye-opener for many people.
One of the best videos on this channel. Makes me feel good for being a subscriber. Thanks! Oh and as for food waste, the way I fight it is through apps that let shops sell me produce they can't shelf any more. There are quite a few, but I have had good experiences with both Phenix and TooGoodToGo. Haven't tried the other ones.
Great video but I feel it is lacking on emphasizing the importance of reducing meat and dairy consumption although none of that was bought in the video it still is important for people to understand the enormous weight of the type of diet and not only the miles it travels or if it is seasonal.
In the 1970's I rode my bicycle up the length of Florida through the vast orange orchards. In chatting with a trucker he said he was driving his load to California to be frozen. I stopped at the next grocery store and looked for Florida Frozen Orange Juice. Sure enough, the label read "Processed in California."
Great video. I was talking about lamb with my workmate, he pointed out that lamb from New Zealand produced less carbon footprint than from Wales, which doesn’t make any sense until you think about the entire lifecycle of the product. You explained it well but you could probably do a fairly hefty series on this subject alone!
The revelation about food miles being part of a FAR more complicated web of variables contributing to a food's carbon footprint blew me away. This really should be more common knowledge so to facilitate that as best I can I've liked and commented. Already a subscriber so eager to see more related content as emissions tied to our sustenance are REALLY important in tackling climate change. Thanks guys for doing the deep dives on our behalf. Invaluable resource.
Loved this video. More of this! What blew my mind is the carbon emissions involved in meat & dairy production. I found that going vegan is the single biggest change any normal person can make to their carbon footprint. I hope you eventually get onto this topic.
Try and look at the HomeBiogas 2 system for all the food waste. It is nice to make your own gas to cook on, and as an bonus you get fertilizer for your garden.
Agreed! We could be generating clean burning fuel and compost, from our sewage and food wastes. Methane, the gas produced from bio-wastes, can be compressed and liquified, and it is higher octane than "natural" (petroleum) gas, (and it needs no refining, and has no toxic byproducts); plus, there is no need to "discover" it, or frack the earth to produce it, not to mention it is renewable, not finite. Right now, we just release the methane into the atmosphere, (from sewage treatment plants and landfills), where it is about 10 times more damaging than CO2, as a greenhouse gas.
@@harryinKenya yeah but it's much more efficient than traditional methods, I'd also argue we should be moving towards hydro/aquaponics as soon as possible, 90% of the water needed, much less space, much more productive in the same time.
@@GregFoot UK tomatoes are grown in a heated greenhouse with bright lights too, this fools the plants to think winter is spring and set flowers and fruit. Often they are soil free and have their own colony of bees. This could be a visit video to see how it all works and discuss with a farmer how to make it greener.
Great show, thanks! I hate to add complication, but there are other non-CO2 environmental impacts - Spanish tomatoes contribute to Spain's severe water shortage, was that Brazilian orange plantation cleared from rainforest? When you come to dairy Californian almond milk is far lower in CO2 that UK milk but has other serious problems... Eat local, seasonal, mostly vegan and especially nothing from cattle! Keep it up !
Thank you Maddie and Greg for another fascinating video. Definitely a lot of food for thought here! We have lots of garden space here so growing a lot of our own food at home is a really feasible option for us. I'll add it to the list of climate friendly projects for our home which have been inspired by watching Fully Charged!
Potatoes can be stored in sacks in a cool shed for many many months. Also apples can be stored on racks in a cool shed also. This old techniques are obviously no longer used by commercial growers, but we can do those things at home. Preservation also is key especially with your homegrown tomatoes!
Now this is an interesting video to me and I loved it. It covers major topics. This is one of the aspect of which i like to explain to those who don't know about GHG in transport sector. Now I can use this video as one of the reference and add more on top of this my other views.
Allotment! Pleased to see you are having a go at some home grown veg. We grow 80% of the vegetables we eat in a year on our home veg patch and over the last few years have reduced our meat eating to tiny amounts. "When I was a boy" Seasonal Veg was all there was ... tastes far better fresh, local and in season, compared to when air-freighted half way round the globe, so skip them and save the money and the planet.
It would be good to check out clothing and fashion as apparently they have a vastly bigger carbon footprint through their lives than almost anything else!
A good way to cut your carbon footprint on clothing is to buy what is already in the system and not new. Second hand shops and charity shops or clothes swaps are a brilliant idea :)
I'm so glad you guys covered this topic! I hope you will also be brave enough to tackle the plastic footprint of groceries, and maybe even about the vegan movement. :-)
Arkadiusz Flak Yeah, but then what do you pack it in? Plastic is lightweight and where needs be, airtight. It’s great for the job it’s supposed to do, but after that it’s the worst thing ever, so I suppose we need to compromise.
@@therealcaldini My mom used to run a small shop for 30 years. She started in 80s and never had vegetables or meat in plastic. everything was fresh and packed by shop assistants in recycled paper. Why not go back to that? Why not buy what you need and eat it fresh? I would love to go to Asda or Tesco and have a conversation with a shop assistant who could offer me a special and maybe suggest something new. I really miss that.
As someone who works in the produce importing industry, I'm glad they've at least pointed out that the "food miles" debate isn't the end all be all. All things being equal, obviously closer is better; however, all things are rarely equal. Other comments have stated (and I'm inclined to believe) that price is one of the better factors in determining. At the very least it will help weed out flown in produce, which is unarguably the wrong choice. Looking at bell peppers for example, I primarily deal with North American product. In the dead of winter we don't have anything available to us, so peppers are flown in from Spain, Netherlands, Israel, and occasionally Panama. What is typically a ~$15 box of produce, suddenly has an additional $10+ of air freight tacked on. Ideally someone would balk at this doubling of price saving the money and emissions in choosing something more sustainable.
From now, I'll open up for the seasonal fruit grown abroad, as I usually didn't buy it because of the food miles. But as I weigh your arguments, and those 6%, then yeah, carbon footprint is more important. Thank you for this enlightening episode!
Wonderful video Maddie & Greg. A great way tackling a complex issue. Clear and actionable messaging to help us all eat greener :) Keep up the great work. Hoping that a video on food waste is in the pipeline.
A lot of mushrooms are mass produced in Ireland so that's not too bad. New Zealand exports a lot of fresh fruit including apples and 🥝, to the UK. Fascinating and a real eye-opener. I like most people have been thinking in terms of food MILES only - OOPS!
Yay! Another very informative, and bittersweet episode. Sweet because of Maddie and Greg give such superb presentations; bitter because… I wish they were my neighbors.
I recently watched a Real Engineering video over how the shipping industry is trying to reduce its 1.7% global CO2 emission by changing to different or alternative propulsion methods. However, I could not help but notice the 18.4% global CO2 emissions being produced in the agricultural industry from the 2016 graph in his video. This episode from Maddie and Greg helps to expand on the understanding of what is going on. I would love to see some videos from FC where you guys go into more detail on what the agricultural industries are doing to reduce their CO2 footprint. The transportation part is the obvious one we all think about and see all the time, but light on the other sides would be great. Maybe another case study idea, thanks for the great work FC.
It's great that you show us that miles from the point of origin is only one of many factors in your "foodprint." It's such a complex subject. Thanks for the book recommendation. One more thing: This looks like something that could make really good use of some software. No, I don't just mean you, the consumer, punching in numbers for stuff you buy. For this to really work, most of the input needs to come from all along the chain, from the field to your fridge.
Superb video guys and some key content for anyone who is trying to strive for a better future but just don't know how. Certainly learnt a few things and really looking forward to seeing the next installment on food waste. Keep up the great work! Glen
Greetings from beautiful Xalapa, Veracruz, México where the Jalapeño chiles originally came from. We are so incredibly blessed here because only about 10%-20% of our fresh fruit and vegetables are imported(grains are another story). Maddie, you are so charming in every sense of the word and should be a future English movie star!!(I can't remember who you look and act so much like, but you are even prettier!). When this pandemic is over, please come to México for a long stay so you fuel foot print is much less. ¡Hasta la vista y siempre bienvenidos! Roy "El Gringo Jalapeño"
Great episode. One interesting point raised right at the end that made my head spin with thoughts: Food waste, all the energy (solar energy) put into growing the plants wasted. This might not be strictly true depending on how the waste food is further processed. Has Fully Charged ever done anything around Anaerobic Digesters? It is an organic waste energy recapture system used for waste foodstuff and organic waste (cow poop). Creates methane that when burnt produced co2, but that carbon is the same carbon taken out of the atmosphere through plant growth. Kind of the same process that happens in your tummy when you eat the food that isn't 'wasted'. Remember humans are co2 producers too! It's an interesting technology - I think perfect for Fully Charged.
I just don’t have time to do this kind of research but farmers markets are a great source of local scoff. The Germans are great at using local and seasonal food. If asparagus or goose is in season, you will find it on every menu. They will always recommend their local wine, I never liked it much but loved that they were passionate and proud of it. Because of this mindset, Lidl & Aldi are pretty good at stocking locally produced meat and veg in their stores.
The footprint saving from growing your own will offset the effects of buying supermarket veg the rest of the year.I will be picking tomatoes from now until October and they will taste so much better .when the glut comes I will share it with the neighbours you just have to make sure somebody eats it .it all counts
Thank you very much for this delightfull video :) Now if you could compare a plant based diet to a "normal western" diet in terms of emissions, that would be great! :D
Highlights just how complicated it is to do the right thing but this programme is a great start. As a novice I would love to be able to have something easy to access that shows me the seasons of food grown that are part of our main diet.I can then adjust accordingly. Looking forward to the next programme.
Just to complicate things with regard to "Grown Locally", here on the Isle of Wight there is a large complex of Green Houses supplying tomatoes to supermarkets. Sainsbury's in Newport had the empty trailer, (after the delivery was unloaded), taken 7 miles up the road to the Tomato Farms. Once loaded there, it was taken over the Solent (on a diesel powered ferry), and on to the Distribution Depot. Where some of these tomatoes were split down, and sent BACK over the Solent to the Newport store. The only way to ensure you get the 'cleanest' food, (with regard to 'footprint'), is to shop at a local farm shop. And only eat 'in-season.' If you happen to live in a big city? Try and get an allotment, maybe? If you can still find one.
I agree with you about using seasonal local produce , I would like to bring your attention to those great leafy greens,a lot of them can be used like spinach, and in soups etc.
Grow your own when you can. It's easy and rewarding. Even in the north you can grow crops like lettuce inside under led lights. Try it, you will be surprised how easy it is.
I'm from Argentina ane luckily almost all food we get is from within the country or some come from across the region, so I believe the carbon footprint here is much lower that yours in Europe. Also, we don't get fruits or vegetables that are not on season, it's almost impossible to get watermelos or peaches if it's not summer. And last, I'm surprise about the fact that in your supermarkets food comes in plastic, in here you don't see packaged vegetables/fruits. Great video !
Great episode! Too bad the details are so complex for the average consumer. The next count over from me has a farm that offers seasonal food and you purchase an annual share of the produce. I just wish it was closer.
It is only recently (30 years) that we have all types of food all year round. We used to eat seasonally produced foods all the time. Plus everyone had most of the garden as vegetable garden - cheaper, good for exercise, no food miles. Going back to this way would be the biggest reduction in carbon reduction / food miles reduction per house. Share surplus foods with neighbours or get an allotment and meet other growers. Exotic foods will always come from the tropics, manly by ship; no problem as they are grown all year outdoors in sunshine.
Great and very much needed video. Regarding green waste for what is thrown out I'd recommend the 'Anaerobic Digestion & Biogas Association' and what is happening to generate biogas & compost.
I've studied a few things in life but most people dismiss my environmental qualifications, but when it comes to my nuclear qualifications they are more impressed. I tell them (but never believed I believe) that really environmental science is far more complicated than nuclear science.
This is really fantastic. Brill to get the complexity of the low carbon lifestyle story and how difficult it is to make low carbon decisions. Fantastic to come to the conclusion on seasonal eating and the fact that food is wasted all around the world.... Have a look at Re-f-use in Durham!! My tip for food - eat less meat, eat less dairy.... the rest, its a minefield!
Looking forward to the episode where they cover meat/dairy. Let the fun begin! The last great frontier for Westerners to get their heads around environmental responsibility. I wonder if the Fully Charged presenters are veggie.
Well I totally learned something,. Would be great if you could cover meat production in the UK, we hear how awful cattle is, but I hear in Scotland it's ok because the cows graze where it's unable or unpractical to farm produce.
Great video! When it comes to CO2 I thought, generally speaking, the more local the better. This was a real eye-opener, thank you. I also consider other sustainability impacts such as deforestation. It would be great to see another video with a similar format talking about other impacts on the environment such as land-use change and overfishing.
Two different food boxes - in cardboard boxes. Here in British Columbia, we get our organic delivery in reusable totes. Each week we put them outside our door for the delivery driver to collect when they delivery another tote. They are re-used for years!
Mushrooms are easy to grow. Just shake out spores on any patch of earth . My Dad grew them in the cellar. Picking blackberries used to be easy then making jam for the year. My Dad used to grow various crops under glass by itself that could now be done under reclaimed plastics. In the South West you might be able to grow grapes, perhaps? Potatoes are easy to grow as are peas, rhubarb, other. My Dad who was a gardener before he went back on the Railways is no longer around to advise me. You can often pick up waste food from shops or supermarkets though many now give this to charities. Rabbits are making a little come back I'm told but either get the Farmer's permission never treading on his/her crops or go poaching. Still do not damage the farmer's crops in which case he/her may ignore you. Dandelions and nettles are considered as weeds but both can be cooked with other such 'weeds.' In Greece the locals go out to pick Horta (a wild plant of the Spinach family.) You can I am sure find books oe You Tube videos on this with more developed tactics & strategies. My Chinese partner gets seaweed from the local Chinese store that you can get online. Down at Dawlish my home town on a visit she was saying 'Oh you can eat this. Look you can eat this one too.' See You Tube for vertical seaweed & shellfish farming. If the foolish can drop their objections to modern safe modular Nuclear Power then it will become possible to bring in by ship the produce from around the Earth also running the freezers at very low to no carbon costs. The US Navy have many ships running on Nuclear Power now. Also needed for at least the base load on any renewable system that may be possible.
we live in Western Canada where the growing season is quite small as winter is so long. After Oct most veg or fruits come from somewhere else so canning/preserving is a big activity in the autumn so that fresh grown local produce can still be available in the deep -30c winter. Alternatively California is not that far away :)
if you can grow your own you'll love it. I have a cherry tree in a pot. I grow Chilli's, Aubergines and sweetcorn in empty juice boxes (the 1l ones). Tomatoes grow well in a tub. I've got a kiwi bush in a pot but no fruit yet but it only went in this spring. and Rhubarb, lots of lovely rhubarb
I loved this video and the series of Maddie goes Electric. I do hope there will be many more episodes done by Maddie and not forgetting Greg. I honour my Fantasy Football Team this year will be named "Maddie does Football!" Unfortunately I am rubbish at Fantasy Football so don't expect this team to be showing as top of the league as we only allow ourselves £90,000,000 in our league. Keep up the good work!😀🚗⚡
Something you ALMOST touched on, a couple of times, is the road miles involved in getting UK grown produce to you from the farm. (Disregarding the tractors etc on the farm, and the machines used to trans-ship it several times) - there is an HGV that comes from a yard, where it overnights - to the farm, to collect the produce, probably loose in trays, baskets or sacks. The HGV then goes to a central storage place, where the load is removed and sorted, bagged, etc, before returning either to the farm for another load, or back to the yard. THEN a CLEAN HGV takes the packaged goods to another warehouse, for further sorting for the various outlets. Another HGV takes the sorted load to IT'S central distribution warehouse, then yet another vehicle takes it to the shop/supermarket. From there, it goes via click and collect, or the customer's vehicle. - - An actual example - a farm three miles from me sells ALL it's produce to a particular distributor, and will not sell 'over the fence' to callers. (maybe the contract prohibits that?) That produce is driven down the motorway from Cheshire, to Berkshire, where the sorting is done. From Berkshire, the mixed order of various veg is shipped to the central warehouse in Birmingham, and from there is broken down into the requirements of the various shops in the chain - then driven to the town two miles from me. So - that 'fresh' veg has been handled four or more times, and driven several hundred miles, to go a grand total of three! So - is the 'fresh' veg grown in your local county really from your local county? And just how fresh is it, really?
Exactly the same as the electric car purchase, companies aren't going to be replacing the fleet of vans they have to save the planet, it will be a business decision based on cost savings
We grow 70% of our own food. We live in Lismore NSW. The furthest is the Brisbane Qld markets 20% of the food. Most come from local growers, with no plastics bag or plastic. We are a subtropical climate.
Those assumptions based on power usage have they taken into consideration the improvements recently made to the UK grid? Also food security and reducing future vectors for infection may be important things to consider as well.
Saw a video on the BBC ages ago about this sort of think... a bigg issue Think also about resource utilisation, in the UK we buy greens beans for example year round... they are mostly freighted in from Kenya as they do not grow yearlong here... thus we encourage a drought ridden area of the world to divert drinking water to grow beans so supermarkets can supply then everyday of the year...
A simpler solution would be to freeze our own UK grown green beans for the winter. We have to learn we cannot always eat fresh all year round, frozen is good. Sometimes it changes the texture of the food, like broccoli, but generally all the vitamins are retained. Most people have freezers, but I know some people will call me out on this as being environmentally unfriendly!
@@ashsargent8464 No it's true, but all I'm saying is if individually, if you want to make a difference to your food carbon footprint, then we need to learn to preserve our local fresh food and eat it in other ways out of season. We have a lot of food waste in this country and learning how to preserve our own food, albeit canning, dehydrating, pickling or freezing can be a good way of eating certain local grown foods out of season, if that's what people want to do, instead of buying beans from Kenya. We do have gluts of fresh food, especially on markets, that get junked at the end of the week. It's such a terrible waste. We definitely need to tackle food waste.
Great presentation... few more points to consider... havent touched on coffee at all... also destruction of habitat... the more food is exported the more an unnaturally big amount of land is used for that location... this is a particular problem in Africa where the environment is so varied but also desertification is such a huge problem
Great that you started to address the true carbon footprint and not the marketing hype of "food miles". It was depressing to me that everything in the first "local" shop you bought was covered in unnecessary plastic. Fossil fuels are used to make plastic, recycling it is carbon intensive and dumping it is not good. It is interesting to compare low carbon footprint of free range meat with factory farmed , grain fed ,barn raised meat. Soybeans are quite environmentally destructive, yet sold to the shallow or gullible as an environmental panacea. Turning over a few rocks often brings interesting results.
Grait job to all farmers and food companies that are marcing food with the total greenhouse gasses footprint, and making and produces or growing the the food LOKALY, and sustainable.
LIKE if we should be more aware of where what we consume comes from; SHARE if you want your friends & family to consider a 'Fully Charged' lifestyle. See full description below...
Do you know where your food really comes from? Maddie and Greg are here to investigate 'food miles' and whether buying an apple from New Zealand has a bigger carbon footprint than growing one locally in the UK. Do we need to look beyond the food miles by air, truck and boat to really understand the carbon footprint of the food we are eating? For easy reference through each section of this episode, see *timestamps* below; links to the resources referred to in this episode, are also below.
If you enjoyed this, check out this session from Fully Charged LIVE where Maddie talks to an expert panel on the importance of understanding what we are eating - www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaGyd...
*Timestamps*
0:00 Introduction to Food Miles
1:17 Shopping for Fresh Fruit & Vegetables
1:49 Food frequently imported from overseas
3:40 Country of Origin labels
4:18 Greg gets researching
6:03 Let's get a local delivery
6:51 But how local is it really?
8:57 Let's go & get our own local food
10:04 Greenhouse Grown? Energy Hungry!
12:36 How & When Food is Grown is key
13:29 Eating Locally & Seasonally
14:40 Home Grown Options
15:36 Carbon Footprint Labelling?
16:10 Maddie & Greg's way forward
17:00 Global Food Waste
17:49 Vegan Easter Egg
Resources referred to in the episode:
‘Sustainable Food Systems and the Mediterranean Diet’ - Sept 2019:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
DEFRA Report - July 2005:
webarchive.nationalarchives.g...
London Mayor’s Food Strategy - May 2006:
www.london.gov.uk/sites/defau...
Independent Aug 2019:
www.independent.co.uk/news/fo...
‘Food Miles, Carbon Footprinting and their potential impact on trade’:
researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz...
‘Climate-Smart Food’ by Professor David Reay:
www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783...
Guardian article on Tesco’s plan to introduce carbon labelling:
www.theguardian.com/business/...
And one on when they dropped the plan:
www.theguardian.com/environme...
Independent article on Quorn’s plan to launch carbon labelling: www.independent.co.uk/life-st...
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icons8.com/
KISS, just Google Gardening to start... and stop fixating all this crazy complexity.... Since we have to eat during the Winter too don't we??? That require the use of energy for greenhouses or transportation... Not to mention most ppl eat more than just fruit and vegs too???
But how about"Synergistic" (closed loop) food production, for the future? Where waste from one source is used as resource for something else.. For example manure from can be used or discard such as from aquaculture (or any animal) can fertilize plants... and large building with ppl in them tend to have excess heat that plants need... not to mention ppl tend to be happier if they can see plant in a an office or in an apartment building..
And then sell herbs, vegs and fruit in a cafeteria in the building? And forget about worrying about its exact carbon footprint??? Just a thought....
Nice show... But the narrative was a little skewed to fixating on minor details. And missed the bigger picture of how the production process need to be changed.
Shared.
An important video - we should persuade everyone to think about the costs of what they eat
@@nc3826 I thought that's what this video said - Keep It Simple S**, grow what you can, think about production costs ie everything you said.
Food for winter used to be what families could store themselves - root vegetables, apples etc. Importing more varied produce during the winter is acceptable, still, for most people.
@@Neilhuny This post was great... But I'm just a Simple engineer and it made my head spin trying to keep track of all the parameters expressed in it, on how to just go grocery shopping...
And as far was what "used" be, many more ppl got scurvy.... also cool stored foods, loss nutritional value... and I would prefer persevered foods.... such as drying and pickling... but now that we can get fresh foods, all winter long...So personally I will not go back to a time when we had less healthy choices... but to each their own...
Can you do a meat one next and have a look at the WHO recommendations on climate change?
I live just a handful of miles South of the equator in Kenya. On my small (11 acres) farm on the shore of Lake Victoria I grow bananas, tomatoes, peppers, melons and some potatoes. Temperature ranges seasonally from 75F to 85F. I have two rainy seasons and draw water from the Lake for the rest of the time with a solar pump. The main local industry is fishing, and I get the waste created by cleaning the fish to make fish emulsion to fertilise my crops, as well as harvesting the plentiful water hyacinth from the Lake to make compost for the soil. My carbon footprint is minimal..
But, note that I grow crops which are suited to my environment, and growing grapes and strawberries in the UK for the market in February is less carbon-footprint-efficient than suffering food miles transport from parts of the world where growing them is better suited.
Keep up the good work Maddie and Greg.
This might be the most important episode you’ve put together for everyone.
I just ate some beans from Kenya and and asparagus from Isreal, must do better - need to get frozen British stuff out of season
This is a fantastic and eye-opening post. I like how you go into these things with open minds and readily accept when your preconceptions turn out to be wrong. The key is to be open to learning, but at the same time be careful about checking the reliability of sources, which you also demonstrate. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Mark!
I've been choosing ecologically grown, locally sourced, food for 20yrs now.
They are fresh and taste better.
Great report. We should all go back to eating seasonally. Strawberries at Christmas’s are ridiculous
Which is exactly the reason I grow my own food down the allotment. Negligible growing costs, local food (about a mile away), seasonal and the biggie - better taste. Can't get better than that.
Growing your own is a great answer to the many complexities of carbon footprints. However where many people live, water for growing your own food is itself a complication both in terms of how it is brought or desalinated energy use, but also perhaps who goes without water when it is sucked from a river or diminished aquifer. Best to live where water falls from the sky and food grows sustainably. We need that for 7.5 billion people, but even if half the population achieved that and the one third food waste was halved, we'd be on a better road, don't you think?
I'm lazy. I'd like a 365 days cookbook that covers seasonal food and (back in time) only meat on the weekend. Also add vegetarian alternatives on those weekend days. The Fully Flexitarian Charged Cookbook?
Vegan is far more green than vegetarian, and no animals are enslaved, artificially inseminated or killed.
This is why I advocate for the proliferation of vertical farms, at least one per town/village using Hydroponics and Aeroponics predominantly and every "large" residential building having a few floors dedicated to growing food.
There's also a point about "heated" farms. These can easily be more energy efficient than non-heated ones as an unusual weather event could easily destroy a crop but be mitigated with climate controls, even though they're not used most of the time (because they focus on seasonal produce for that area).
We're still very stuck in the past for food production, a revolution can occur, it's just how long the legacy can continue.
Like it or not this post showed... the new ways to do it, is not "always" the lower CF option... but we all know the "legacy" of SM has been it's all about simple minded meme, instead the complex multifaceted approach that is messy real world answer.... so good luck with that :)
Vertical farms are the future. I re ad that if the current crop lands were converted to vertical farms, it would produce enough food for 34 TRILLION people. So you can imagine just how much land we could give back to nature, if all we needed to do is feed a measly 8 billion with vertical farms! :-)
vertical farms have a lot of advantages, but energy efficiency is not one of them because of the lighting requirements
@@callumoakey3753 Actually they are more energy efficient, when viewed holistically.
The land freed up from traditional farming can be repurposed for solar and scrub land, the building itself can be covered with solar panels, using integrated light tunnels to distribute daylight throughout, let alone the enormous reduction in water usage and chemical runoff "costs".
There's still a whole bunch of stuff that we can't grow much more efficiently than current practices, but those products won't be such a hindrance, once we've shifted what we can.
SM wannabe expert idealizing conjecture is fun, but it will come down to cost for most consumer...
You pair are adorable, clearly passionate and well informed. I'd love to see this widely broadcast around schools and on mainstream TV. It's lifestyle education we are sadly missing presented in a friendly, non preaching way. Loved it!
Amazing work guys. Finally someone looking at the whole production and transport chain. Seasonal food is the key!
Thanks Ivan
This is nothing new Gregg Wallace and other 'celebrity' food gurus have been advocating this for years it's only because the british public at large don't garden anymore they do not realise what uk food seasons are and assume strawberries at Christmas is normal
Great video.
It is a difficult and not straightforward topic. We had a local food goup (UK) a few years ago, to buy & distribute seasonal food from an ideal 50mile radius of our town. It was not easy! Local cliamate limited the food ranges, but eventually other local businesses started to sell from the same producers, and the group was closed as it was no longer needed. Great result!
In the Netherlands our friends have a share of a farm co-op where many families have invested into their own small farm, employing a farmer, with the aim of growing as much produce that they can to subsidise the supermarket shop as best as possible & lower food miles. I would be interested in hearing more about schemes like this from where ever they are.
Fantastic. This video can be shown to all age groups as a great piece of education.
Yay! Maddie & Greg! Great coverage of this very complicated topic. Fully Charged keeps getting better and better.
Thanks Larry, much appreciated
At first I was skeptical about watching this video. But, you both did a fantastic job of explaining the information. Thanks.
Love this, I had no idea transport was only 6℅ of the carbon footprint of food and that looking for where things are in season around the world could be better than UK grown. I have so much to learn....
Very good - much more thorough than the usual "buy local" mantra. In addition to what you covered, some foods have an inherently higher carbon footprint than others (like beef vs. pork vs. poultry).
They were only checking on vegetables and fruits not on meat!
@@CurdinGees74 As I said, "in addition to what you covered...". Not everybody is vegan; some people eat close to a natural human diet (and yet others eat far too much meat.)
@@bazoo513 so true... meat probably has very low food miles... we should all be carnivores 😆
@@knifeyonline zombies have a very low food miles / footprint
This is a very solid, well researched and good - to - watch video about a topic that everyone is experiencing every day - and it is great to learn about it. Unfortunate I had no commercials around it, so the big company running this service does not like it. And that is a shame for that company. So I am really considering doing the Patreon support - as soon as the "double plus cold" effects vanish and I can afford it. Very good work, fully charged show team! Please go ahead with it.
One of the best fully charged vids so far. Greg, you're a natural!
Love that you guys are obviously normal people learning as you go, haven't staged anything, and showed your mistakes. Make it very accessible.
we appreciate this, thanks @SciFiMind
Whilst I have known the general food facts for years, eg, transportation CO2, heating CO2, fertiliser CO2, there were several details that were great for refreshing the tired brain cells. Excellent video, and I'm sure an eye-opener for many people.
One of the best videos on this channel. Makes me feel good for being a subscriber. Thanks! Oh and as for food waste, the way I fight it is through apps that let shops sell me produce they can't shelf any more. There are quite a few, but I have had good experiences with both Phenix and TooGoodToGo. Haven't tried the other ones.
Great video but I feel it is lacking on emphasizing the importance of reducing meat and dairy consumption although none of that was bought in the video it still is important for people to understand the enormous weight of the type of diet and not only the miles it travels or if it is seasonal.
How on earth did they manage to find time to film this alongside recording Let's Go Live for the last three months?! Great work as always!
Haha! We're not quite sure either!
it's been a busy 3 months!!
You guys are fab ! ... love the little out take bit on the end 🤣👍🏼... is never have thought of any of that stuff ! Thankyou
In the 1970's I rode my bicycle up the length of Florida through the vast orange orchards. In chatting with a trucker he said he was driving his load to California to be frozen. I stopped at the next grocery store and looked for Florida Frozen Orange Juice. Sure enough, the label read "Processed in California."
Yeah, that's the kind of craziness we live in. Makes no sense
Great video. I was talking about lamb with my workmate, he pointed out that lamb from New Zealand produced less carbon footprint than from Wales, which doesn’t make any sense until you think about the entire lifecycle of the product. You explained it well but you could probably do a fairly hefty series on this subject alone!
James, would you please explain the reasoning behind that conclusion, as my otherwise logical brain cannot find it? Harry. a Welshman in Kenya.
You eat baby sheep?
The revelation about food miles being part of a FAR more complicated web of variables contributing to a food's carbon footprint blew me away. This really should be more common knowledge so to facilitate that as best I can I've liked and commented. Already a subscriber so eager to see more related content as emissions tied to our sustenance are REALLY important in tackling climate change. Thanks guys for doing the deep dives on our behalf. Invaluable resource.
Thanks Ben
Loved this video. More of this!
What blew my mind is the carbon emissions involved in meat & dairy production. I found that going vegan is the single biggest change any normal person can make to their carbon footprint. I hope you eventually get onto this topic.
Try and look at the HomeBiogas 2 system for all the food waste.
It is nice to make your own gas to cook on, and as an bonus you get fertilizer for your garden.
Agreed! We could be generating clean burning fuel and compost, from our sewage and food wastes. Methane, the gas produced from bio-wastes, can be compressed and liquified, and it is higher octane than "natural" (petroleum) gas, (and it needs no refining, and has no toxic byproducts); plus, there is no need to "discover" it, or frack the earth to produce it, not to mention it is renewable, not finite. Right now, we just release the methane into the atmosphere, (from sewage treatment plants and landfills), where it is about 10 times more damaging than CO2, as a greenhouse gas.
A green house product is not necessarily from a heated green house. That's the whole point of a green house.....
I believe we did discuss that Jan, no?
Even if the greenhouse is not heated, making the greenhouse had a carbon footprint.
@@harryinKenya yeah but it's much more efficient than traditional methods, I'd also argue we should be moving towards hydro/aquaponics as soon as possible, 90% of the water needed, much less space, much more productive in the same time.
@@harryinKenya Yes but that a one off carbon footprint. Rather continuously producing carbon that air and sea transport would produce.
@@GregFoot UK tomatoes are grown in a heated greenhouse with bright lights too, this fools the plants to think winter is spring and set flowers and fruit. Often they are soil free and have their own colony of bees. This could be a visit video to see how it all works and discuss with a farmer how to make it greener.
Hands down the best presenter on Fully Charged. Great, happy energy ALWAYS! Great video Maddie and Greg! Very interesting too!
Great show, thanks! I hate to add complication, but there are other non-CO2 environmental impacts - Spanish tomatoes contribute to Spain's severe water shortage, was that Brazilian orange plantation cleared from rainforest? When you come to dairy Californian almond milk is far lower in CO2 that UK milk but has other serious problems... Eat local, seasonal, mostly vegan and especially nothing from cattle!
Keep it up !
Now I have to rethink my carbon footprint. Thanks for another great episode
Thank you Maddie and Greg for another fascinating video. Definitely a lot of food for thought here! We have lots of garden space here so growing a lot of our own food at home is a really feasible option for us. I'll add it to the list of climate friendly projects for our home which have been inspired by watching Fully Charged!
This is why buying local can be a very miss leading thing when it comes to the environment impact of food. So glad you have talked about this.
Cheers Anthony, it was fascinating learning about it all
Cheers Anthony
Potatoes can be stored in sacks in a cool shed for many many months. Also apples can be stored on racks in a cool shed also. This old techniques are obviously no longer used by commercial growers, but we can do those things at home. Preservation also is key especially with your homegrown tomatoes!
Now this is an interesting video to me and I loved it. It covers major topics. This is one of the aspect of which i like to explain to those who don't know about GHG in transport sector. Now I can use this video as one of the reference and add more on top of this my other views.
Allotment! Pleased to see you are having a go at some home grown veg. We grow 80% of the vegetables we eat in a year on our home veg patch and over the last few years have reduced our meat eating to tiny amounts. "When I was a boy" Seasonal Veg was all there was ... tastes far better fresh, local and in season, compared to when air-freighted half way round the globe, so skip them and save the money and the planet.
It would be good to check out clothing and fashion as apparently they have a vastly bigger carbon footprint through their lives than almost anything else!
A good way to cut your carbon footprint on clothing is to buy what is already in the system and not new. Second hand shops and charity shops or clothes swaps are a brilliant idea :)
I'm so glad you guys covered this topic! I hope you will also be brave enough to tackle the plastic footprint of groceries, and maybe even about the vegan movement. :-)
One change to the food productions / sale in my opinion would make an immediate change for good - stop packing it in plastic.
Arkadiusz Flak Yeah, but then what do you pack it in? Plastic is lightweight and where needs be, airtight. It’s great for the job it’s supposed to do, but after that it’s the worst thing ever, so I suppose we need to compromise.
@@therealcaldini My mom used to run a small shop for 30 years. She started in 80s and never had vegetables or meat in plastic. everything was fresh and packed by shop assistants in recycled paper. Why not go back to that? Why not buy what you need and eat it fresh? I would love to go to Asda or Tesco and have a conversation with a shop assistant who could offer me a special and maybe suggest something new. I really miss that.
Agreed
As someone who works in the produce importing industry, I'm glad they've at least pointed out that the "food miles" debate isn't the end all be all. All things being equal, obviously closer is better; however, all things are rarely equal.
Other comments have stated (and I'm inclined to believe) that price is one of the better factors in determining. At the very least it will help weed out flown in produce, which is unarguably the wrong choice.
Looking at bell peppers for example, I primarily deal with North American product. In the dead of winter we don't have anything available to us, so peppers are flown in from Spain, Netherlands, Israel, and occasionally Panama. What is typically a ~$15 box of produce, suddenly has an additional $10+ of air freight tacked on. Ideally someone would balk at this doubling of price saving the money and emissions in choosing something more sustainable.
From now, I'll open up for the seasonal fruit grown abroad, as I usually didn't buy it because of the food miles. But as I weigh your arguments, and those 6%, then yeah, carbon footprint is more important.
Thank you for this enlightening episode!
You're welcome, was super interesting to make!
Wonderful video Maddie & Greg. A great way tackling a complex issue. Clear and actionable messaging to help us all eat greener :) Keep up the great work. Hoping that a video on food waste is in the pipeline.
Thanks Christopher
A lot of mushrooms are mass produced in Ireland so that's not too bad.
New Zealand exports a lot of fresh fruit including apples and 🥝, to the UK.
Fascinating and a real eye-opener. I like most people have been thinking in terms of food MILES only - OOPS!
Wow wow , great report. Opening my eyes to seasonal eating
Yay! Another very informative, and bittersweet episode. Sweet because of Maddie and Greg give such superb presentations; bitter because… I wish they were my neighbors.
mmm.. the over the top "I'm a TV presenter" Maddie style gets a bit tiresome after a while.
Fully Charged is changing. Content is getting wider but stay on proper topic. Good work!
I recently watched a Real Engineering video over how the shipping industry is trying to reduce its 1.7% global CO2 emission by changing to different or alternative propulsion methods. However, I could not help but notice the 18.4% global CO2 emissions being produced in the agricultural industry from the 2016 graph in his video. This episode from Maddie and Greg helps to expand on the understanding of what is going on. I would love to see some videos from FC where you guys go into more detail on what the agricultural industries are doing to reduce their CO2 footprint. The transportation part is the obvious one we all think about and see all the time, but light on the other sides would be great.
Maybe another case study idea, thanks for the great work FC.
It's great that you show us that miles from the point of origin is only one of many factors in your "foodprint." It's such a complex subject. Thanks for the book recommendation.
One more thing: This looks like something that could make really good use of some software. No, I don't just mean you, the consumer, punching in numbers for stuff you buy. For this to really work, most of the input needs to come from all along the chain, from the field to your fridge.
Superb video guys and some key content for anyone who is trying to strive for a better future but just don't know how.
Certainly learnt a few things and really looking forward to seeing the next installment on food waste.
Keep up the great work!
Glen
Maddie is a joy to watch, so bubbly
A fascinating and informative episode told beautifully by two excellent presenters.
Gosh, thank you! :)
Thank you!
Very interesting and informative. I'm proud to be a supporter of Fully Charged.
Greetings from beautiful Xalapa, Veracruz, México where the Jalapeño chiles originally came from. We are so incredibly blessed here because only about 10%-20% of our fresh fruit and vegetables are imported(grains are another story). Maddie, you are so charming in every sense of the word and should be a future English movie star!!(I can't remember who you look and act so much like, but you are even prettier!). When this pandemic is over, please come to México for a long stay so you fuel foot print is much less. ¡Hasta la vista y siempre bienvenidos! Roy "El Gringo Jalapeño"
Great episode. One interesting point raised right at the end that made my head spin with thoughts:
Food waste, all the energy (solar energy) put into growing the plants wasted. This might not be strictly true depending on how the waste food is further processed.
Has Fully Charged ever done anything around Anaerobic Digesters? It is an organic waste energy recapture system used for waste foodstuff and organic waste (cow poop).
Creates methane that when burnt produced co2, but that carbon is the same carbon taken out of the atmosphere through plant growth. Kind of the same process that happens in your tummy when you eat the food that isn't 'wasted'. Remember humans are co2 producers too!
It's an interesting technology - I think perfect for Fully Charged.
Better to share with neighbours first using the OLIO app 👍
I just don’t have time to do this kind of research but farmers markets are a great source of local scoff.
The Germans are great at using local and seasonal food. If asparagus or goose is in season, you will find it on every menu. They will always recommend their local wine, I never liked it much but loved that they were passionate and proud of it.
Because of this mindset, Lidl & Aldi are pretty good at stocking locally produced meat and veg in their stores.
The footprint saving from growing your own will offset the effects of buying supermarket veg the rest of the year.I will be picking tomatoes from now until October and they will taste so much better .when the glut comes I will share it with the neighbours you just have to make sure somebody eats it .it all counts
Thank you very much for this delightfull video :)
Now if you could compare a plant based diet to a "normal western" diet in terms of emissions, that would be great! :D
I thought this was going to be dumb, but it was actually really enlightening.
We are just about to start eating our own tomatoes (two weeks earlier this year) grown without heat and will pick until October. The footprint saving
Highlights just how complicated it is to do the right thing but this programme is a great start. As a novice I would love to be able to have something easy to access that shows me the seasons of food grown that are part of our main diet.I can then adjust accordingly. Looking forward to the next programme.
Thanks Martyn
Really great video for my lesson. I am teaching Food miles to me year 7's. Thank you!
Just to complicate things with regard to "Grown Locally", here on the Isle of Wight there is a large complex of Green Houses supplying tomatoes to supermarkets. Sainsbury's in Newport had the empty trailer, (after the delivery was unloaded), taken 7 miles up the road to the Tomato Farms. Once loaded there, it was taken over the Solent (on a diesel powered ferry), and on to the Distribution Depot. Where some of these tomatoes were split down, and sent BACK over the Solent to the Newport store.
The only way to ensure you get the 'cleanest' food, (with regard to 'footprint'), is to shop at a local farm shop. And only eat 'in-season.'
If you happen to live in a big city? Try and get an allotment, maybe? If you can still find one.
I agree with you about using seasonal local produce , I would like to bring your attention to those great leafy greens,a lot of them can be used like spinach, and in soups etc.
Grow your own when you can. It's easy and rewarding. Even in the north you can grow crops like lettuce inside under led lights. Try it, you will be surprised how easy it is.
I'm from Argentina ane luckily almost all food we get is from within the country or some come from across the region, so I believe the carbon footprint here is much lower that yours in Europe. Also, we don't get fruits or vegetables that are not on season, it's almost impossible to get watermelos or peaches if it's not summer. And last, I'm surprise about the fact that in your supermarkets food comes in plastic, in here you don't see packaged vegetables/fruits. Great video !
Great episode! Too bad the details are so complex for the average consumer. The next count over from me has a farm that offers seasonal food and you purchase an annual share of the produce. I just wish it was closer.
It is only recently (30 years) that we have all types of food all year round. We used to eat seasonally produced foods all the time. Plus everyone had most of the garden as vegetable garden - cheaper, good for exercise, no food miles. Going back to this way would be the biggest reduction in carbon reduction / food miles reduction per house. Share surplus foods with neighbours or get an allotment and meet other growers. Exotic foods will always come from the tropics, manly by ship; no problem as they are grown all year outdoors in sunshine.
What if the heating used in UK growing is achieved from renewable energy? Just saying 😀
It's better for it to be fossil fuel based, literally the plants use the increased c02 to photosynthesise more
Great and very much needed video. Regarding green waste for what is thrown out I'd recommend the 'Anaerobic Digestion & Biogas Association' and what is happening to generate biogas & compost.
Thanks for going down this rabbithole for us :)
Thought provoking & the way you explained that like many things it’s complex. Like your simple rules approach 👏🏻
Good story telling. The obvious choice not always the right one.
I've studied a few things in life but most people dismiss my environmental qualifications, but when it comes to my nuclear qualifications they are more impressed. I tell them (but never believed I believe) that really environmental science is far more complicated than nuclear science.
This is really fantastic.
Brill to get the complexity of the low carbon lifestyle story and how difficult it is to make low carbon decisions. Fantastic to come to the conclusion on seasonal eating and the fact that food is wasted all around the world.... Have a look at Re-f-use in Durham!!
My tip for food - eat less meat, eat less dairy.... the rest, its a minefield!
Looking forward to the episode where they cover meat/dairy. Let the fun begin! The last great frontier for Westerners to get their heads around environmental responsibility. I wonder if the Fully Charged presenters are veggie.
Well I totally learned something,. Would be great if you could cover meat production in the UK, we hear how awful cattle is, but I hear in Scotland it's ok because the cows graze where it's unable or unpractical to farm produce.
Great video! When it comes to CO2 I thought, generally speaking, the more local the better. This was a real eye-opener, thank you. I also consider other sustainability impacts such as deforestation. It would be great to see another video with a similar format talking about other impacts on the environment such as land-use change and overfishing.
Two different food boxes - in cardboard boxes. Here in British Columbia, we get our organic delivery in reusable totes. Each week we put them outside our door for the delivery driver to collect when they delivery another tote. They are re-used for years!
Mushrooms are easy to grow. Just shake out spores on any patch of earth . My Dad grew them in the cellar. Picking blackberries used to be easy then making jam for the year. My Dad used to grow various crops under glass by itself that could now be done under reclaimed plastics. In the South West you might be able to grow grapes, perhaps? Potatoes are easy to grow as are peas, rhubarb, other. My Dad who was a gardener before he went back on the Railways is no longer around to advise me. You can often pick up waste food from shops or supermarkets though many now give this to charities. Rabbits are making a little come back I'm told but either get the Farmer's permission never treading on his/her crops or go poaching. Still do not damage the farmer's crops in which case he/her may ignore you. Dandelions and nettles are considered as weeds but both can be cooked with other such 'weeds.' In Greece the locals go out to pick Horta (a wild plant of the Spinach family.) You can I am sure find books oe You Tube videos on this with more developed tactics & strategies. My Chinese partner gets seaweed from the local Chinese store that you can get online. Down at Dawlish my home town on a visit she was saying 'Oh you can eat this. Look you can eat this one too.' See You Tube for vertical seaweed & shellfish farming. If the foolish can drop their objections to modern safe modular Nuclear Power then it will become possible to bring in by ship the produce from around the Earth also running the freezers at very low to no carbon costs. The US Navy have many ships running on Nuclear Power now. Also needed for at least the base load on any renewable system that may be possible.
we live in Western Canada where the growing season is quite small as winter is so long. After Oct most veg or fruits come from somewhere else so canning/preserving is a big activity in the autumn so that fresh grown local produce can still be available in the deep -30c winter. Alternatively California is not that far away :)
Amazing video. Thanks for the good job👍
This was a terrific video. Thanks.
if you can grow your own you'll love it. I have a cherry tree in a pot. I grow Chilli's, Aubergines and sweetcorn in empty juice boxes (the 1l ones). Tomatoes grow well in a tub. I've got a kiwi bush in a pot but no fruit yet but it only went in this spring. and Rhubarb, lots of lovely rhubarb
I loved this video and the series of Maddie goes Electric. I do hope there will be many more episodes done by Maddie and not forgetting Greg. I honour my Fantasy Football Team this year will be named "Maddie does Football!" Unfortunately I am rubbish at Fantasy Football so don't expect this team to be showing as top of the league as we only allow ourselves £90,000,000 in our league. Keep up the good work!😀🚗⚡
Your home is looking SO neat and fab, considering you only move a while back, and your so busy this year. Love the work you put into this. Thanks
Well that was an eye opener.. Very interesting
Something you ALMOST touched on, a couple of times, is the road miles involved in getting UK grown produce to you from the farm. (Disregarding the tractors etc on the farm, and the machines used to trans-ship it several times) - there is an HGV that comes from a yard, where it overnights - to the farm, to collect the produce, probably loose in trays, baskets or sacks. The HGV then goes to a central storage place, where the load is removed and sorted, bagged, etc, before returning either to the farm for another load, or back to the yard. THEN a CLEAN HGV takes the packaged goods to another warehouse, for further sorting for the various outlets. Another HGV takes the sorted load to IT'S central distribution warehouse, then yet another vehicle takes it to the shop/supermarket. From there, it goes via click and collect, or the customer's vehicle. - - An actual example - a farm three miles from me sells ALL it's produce to a particular distributor, and will not sell 'over the fence' to callers. (maybe the contract prohibits that?) That produce is driven down the motorway from Cheshire, to Berkshire, where the sorting is done. From Berkshire, the mixed order of various veg is shipped to the central warehouse in Birmingham, and from there is broken down into the requirements of the various shops in the chain - then driven to the town two miles from me. So - that 'fresh' veg has been handled four or more times, and driven several hundred miles, to go a grand total of three! So - is the 'fresh' veg grown in your local county really from your local county? And just how fresh is it, really?
Main driving force for consumers is cost.
Exactly the same as the electric car purchase, companies aren't going to be replacing the fleet of vans they have to save the planet, it will be a business decision based on cost savings
We could of course heat our UK farms with Solar / Wind and Batteries !!
just great that you are doing these shows.
We grow 70% of our own food. We live in Lismore NSW. The furthest is the Brisbane Qld markets 20% of the food. Most come from local growers, with no plastics bag or plastic. We are a subtropical climate.
I AM looking forward to this new series. Your approach is definitively refreshing and the vulgarisation and depth is impressive. THANK-YOU FOR THIS.
Those assumptions based on power usage have they taken into consideration the improvements recently made to the UK grid?
Also food security and reducing future vectors for infection may be important things to consider as well.
Saw a video on the BBC ages ago about this sort of think... a bigg issue Think also about resource utilisation, in the UK we buy greens beans for example year round... they are mostly freighted in from Kenya as they do not grow yearlong here... thus we encourage a drought ridden area of the world to divert drinking water to grow beans so supermarkets can supply then everyday of the year...
A simpler solution would be to freeze our own UK grown green beans for the winter. We have to learn we cannot always eat fresh all year round, frozen is good. Sometimes it changes the texture of the food, like broccoli, but generally all the vitamins are retained. Most people have freezers, but I know some people will call me out on this as being environmentally unfriendly!
heytheregeorgeygirl the UK is not self sufficient for food tho :/
@@ashsargent8464 No it's true, but all I'm saying is if individually, if you want to make a difference to your food carbon footprint, then we need to learn to preserve our local fresh food and eat it in other ways out of season. We have a lot of food waste in this country and learning how to preserve our own food, albeit canning, dehydrating, pickling or freezing can be a good way of eating certain local grown foods out of season, if that's what people want to do, instead of buying beans from Kenya. We do have gluts of fresh food, especially on markets, that get junked at the end of the week. It's such a terrible waste. We definitely need to tackle food waste.
Great presentation... few more points to consider... havent touched on coffee at all... also destruction of habitat... the more food is exported the more an unnaturally big amount of land is used for that location... this is a particular problem in Africa where the environment is so varied but also desertification is such a huge problem
Great that you started to address the true carbon footprint and not the marketing hype of "food miles". It was depressing to me that everything in the first "local" shop you bought was covered in unnecessary plastic. Fossil fuels are used to make plastic, recycling it is carbon intensive and dumping it is not good. It is interesting to compare low carbon footprint of free range meat with factory farmed , grain fed ,barn raised meat. Soybeans are quite environmentally destructive, yet sold to the shallow or gullible as an environmental panacea. Turning over a few rocks often brings interesting results.
Grait job to all farmers and food companies that are marcing food with the total greenhouse gasses footprint, and making and produces or growing the the food LOKALY, and sustainable.