Food Mileage Project Reduces 38,491 Tons of CO2

Image by Japan for Sustainability

Daichi wo Mamoru Kai (literally: Association to Preserve the Earth), an organic food home-delivery service, and cooperative unions Seikatsu Club, Green Co-op, and PAL System announced on December 22, 2010, that they reduced 38,491 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions during the 14 months from September 2009 to October 2010 under the Food Mileage Project. This figure is equivalent to the annual amount of CO2 absorbed by 8,368 hectares (approximately 21,673 acres) of beech forest.

The four organizations started the Food Mileage Project in September 2009 with an aim to improve Japan's food self-sufficiency rate. The project divides foods into five categories: staple foods such as rice and flour (low self-sufficiency, high consumption), soybeans, livestock products (fed with domestic feeds), edible oils, and frozen vegetables. Certain products in these five categories are selected to compare the levels of CO2 emitted during the transportation of imported products with emissions from transporting products made from domestic raw materials. The differences are tallied as "poco" units, one poco being equivalent to 100 grams of CO2.

The adoption of the Food Mileage Project has promoted a shift to livestock feeds made from domestic raw ingredients, effectively increasing the demand for those ingredients. Differences in the CO2 emissions of domestic and imported foods--mainly bread, tofu and frozen vegetables--can be calculated on the Food Mileage Projects' website.

The four organizations will continue their appeal to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted in the process of transporting food by promoting the use of domestic products, and also hope to engage in other activities that would lead to further improvement of Japan's food self-sufficiency.

Food Mileage Project Website
http://www.food-mileage-project.com/main.html

Social Entrepreneurship Starting with One Japanese Daikon Radish - Kazuyoshi Fujita, President of "Daichi wo Mamoru Kai"
http://www.japanfs.org/en/mailmagazine/newsletter/pages/030680.html
Japanese Co-op Starts Food Mileage Display to Contribute to Domestic Self-Sufficiency, Environmental Conservation (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/030168.html

Posted: 2011/04/24 06:00:15 AM