Americans like to have the facts. One of the things I’ve missed here in France is the good old nutrition label. I was very fond of that label. I know, I’m a freak. Here in France, food packaging seems to display whatever information will fit on the package and/or whatever the manufacturer feels like revealing. (OK, Vincent just told me thay have to put the ingredients on the package.) There are these addictive coconut cookies called congolais. Insanely good. I know there must be about 947 grams of fat in each one. But the label tells me absolutely nothing about their “nutritional value,” so I’ve been in blissful denial, enabled by the cookie maker, and scarfing ‘em constantly since I got here.
The other day, I saw something that got me thinking. A Swiss magazine about consumer issues called Bon à Savoir did a little research in collaboration with a TV show called On en parle. They investigated how far some major grocery chains go to get a number of common produce items. Their goal was to calculate the effect on the atmosphere of shipping produce from its place of origin to store shelves. What they found out was quite disturbing. I may never eat my favorite fruit again… Getting about two pounds of kiwis from New Zealand to Switzerland dumps about ten pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Now, I know most of you can’t read this table. It says “20,000 to 50,000 kilometers to fill the same basket.” The list is far from exhaustive, of course. But let’s just say that if I want to be really green, I’ll be eating a lot of cauliflower, squash, endives, flat parsley, and thyme. Actually, that’s pretty much what I do eat…
Seriously, though, what can we do with this kind of information? We always knew our bananas got here on boats, but I doubt many people ever really gave it much thought. It was in elementary school that we first learned about things like that. That was the way the world worked. In the context of our imminent environmental apocalypse, however, we do need to think about it. (When was the last time you saw Soylent Green? Remember the dinner scene where Charlton gave Edward G. that limp lettuce leaf, which practically brought him to tears? C’mon, watch it again. It’s too good.)
I’m from southern California, where produce sections look like botanical gardens all year ’round. I always figured most of the fresh veggies I bought came from somewhere in the state, given the climate and the fact that it’s the top-producing agricultural state. A couple of years before I left Merka for la belle France, I had started to notice that sometimes signs in the produce section mentioned where the stuff came from (in teensy weensy print). Sometimes it’s printed on the little stickers.
What I’m getting at is that now I really want all the facts. I want to know the carbon footprint of that tangerine. If there are laws about displaying nutritional content, about what you can and can’t call “low fat,” if grocery stores can tell you the cost per ounce of everything so you can see you get a better deal buying the 28-ounce can than the 15, why shouldn’t we be told how many miles our lettuce had to travel to get there so we can make an informed decision about whether to buy it or not? Some of us very green-leaning types would actually use that information and act on it. Most Americans wouldn’t, of course. At this point. But you can bet your kids and grandkids will. They’ll have to. Or maybe they won’t; they might not even have the choice when they grow up…
I think this calls for a little legislation. I want laws requiring full disclosure about the origins of my food. Not just the produce, but also the stuff in cans, boxes, and bags. I think I’ll suggest it to the people who supposedly represent me in government. I won’t benefit from it here in France, of course, but I won’t be surprised if the EU institutes some such law long before the American government even entertains the idea.
In the meantime, take a moment or two to reflect the next time you’re squeezing kiwis… And as for those coconut cookies… I don’t think there are any coconut palms in France. Guess I oughtta ease up on the congolais consumption. Just as well.
Merci à TechBee pour l’article !
I don’t know who to give credit to for the incredible meatface picture, but I found it in Google images, which led me here.
You are right. A mention of how many kilos of carbon gaz a product has used, right on the box or bottle, would be very useful. Very good idea.
[...] a financial loss? How many have started looking at where their produce comes from, passing on the kiwis to buy the food that leaves the smallest carbon footprint? How many have actually moved into a [...]