Your Carbon footprint from shopping can be as much as your home heating or running your car. This is big ! What can you do about it ....?
If you, like most people in the UK, shop at the big supermarket chains, your shopping choices will be coming at a high Carbon cost. Some calculations show that your shopping Carbon footprint can be as much as your home heating or running your car. This is big !
Compared to the local shopping that existed a few decades ago, virtually all the products on supermarket shelves will have travelled hundreds if not thousands of miles before you pick them up.
We're not just talking airmiles - Even "locally grown" vegetables can travel hundreds of miles only to end up back where they started. Being carried in thirsty refrigerated lorries from the farm to some distant distribution centre, they can end up taking another trip to a store just a few miles from where they grew.... yet with tonnes more Carbon in the air.
Why do we do this ? Basically, because fuel's cheap. Economics dictate that at current fuel prices it makes sense to have a fleet of large supermarket trucks ploughing the motorways 24/7. Were fuel to be 3 times the price, we'd have a much more local supply situation - like it has been throughout history.
However, since that's unlikely to change overnight, what can we do if we want to minimise the shopping portion of our Carbon footprint ?
Answer: Buy more locally produced goods.
Even if it's just a box of local eggs it all makes a difference. There's loads of gems out there if you look - and often the tastiest food you've had in ages.
And as ever, the internet comes to our rescue... Find your nearest local food outlets by simply typing your postcode here: http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/producers/
Oh, and if you're in Bedfordshire, this is my absolute favourite place - growing its own organic veg on site. www.flittonhill.co.uk - gorgeous!