{"id":11165,"date":"2021-07-27T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forkranger.com\/?p=11165"},"modified":"2025-04-30T13:31:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T13:31:34","slug":"the-surprising-impact-of-air-transported-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fr-wp.cowdev.com\/de\/blog\/the-surprising-impact-of-air-transported-food\/","title":{"rendered":"The surprising impact of air-transported food"},"content":{"rendered":"

Main learning<\/strong>: A tiny percentage of products come by air
Goal:<\/strong> Avoid the few air-transported products
Impact<\/strong>: Low<\/span><\/a><\/strong> \ud83c\udf0d\ud83c\udf0e\u26aa\ufe0f\u26aa\ufe0f\u26aa\ufe0f (see full Compass<\/span><\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am happy with our globalised world. During a normal week I might eat Italian pasta or Indian curry. I can’t imagine only eating potatoes every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when you’re reducing meat and dairy, you often cook with products from far away. It’s an argument I’ve heard a lot: “Better to eat meat than flying coconut milk across the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there any truth to that claim? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s the footprint of air-transported products?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the Netherlands, an example of air transported food is green beans (9% of them arrive by air<\/a>). To analyse the impact we found a study<\/a> that compared green beans flown in from Kenya to green beans grown in the UK (the circumstances of the UK and the Netherlands are similar).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Climate<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The impact of air-transported beans is 7,5 times higher!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put things in context, I also want to compare this to the lowest and highest-impact meat: chicken and beef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Climate<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even the worst green beans are almost three times better per kilogram than the average beef option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are cases where vegetables flown by air are worse than meat. For example, the book ‘How bad are bananas’ features one of the worst air-transported foods: asparagus flown in from Peru to the UK (which is a lot farther than Kenya). In this scenario, the asparagus even has a slightly higher impact than a hamburger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like avoiding air-transported products should be just as important as eating less meat. But that’s not the full story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many products come by plane?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We think that products from around the world come by air, while in reality most food comes by boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will look at the impact of shipping another time, but the emissions per product are dramatically lower compared to flying because so much fits on a container ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Only 0,16% of all food miles are done by air. Let’s say you’re in the supermarket and you pick one random product. The chances that it came by air are less than 1 in 600. And coconut milk is definitely not one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If such a small amount of food comes by plane, it means that it can’t be an important topic to focus on when trying to eat more sustainably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how much should you care?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Air-transported foods are just as bad as meat but the chances of buying them are really, really low. That makes it a complicated issue. Of course you want to avoid those products but it’s probably not worth spending a lot of effort on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If anything, the high impact of air-transported foods confronts us with our vacations and the impact of flying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you want to do something, the problem is knowing which products came by plane. It would be great to have stickers to show what came by air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all the statistics say that you shouldn’t care about air transport. And yet, it feels wrong…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with so many other things this is completely counterintuitive. But sometimes it’s not just about the numbers. As a conscious consumer I want to feel good about my food. And avoiding air-transported food is a symbolic action. It’s my way of protesting against the absurdities of our food system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now that we know that it makes a small difference, I still want to give you some advice on how to avoid products that came by air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to avoid air-transported food products<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One indicator can be price. Flying is expensive, so it only makes sense for foods that have a short shelf life. This means they are soft, fresh and refrigerated products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most common examples of air-transported food include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n