To Cut Global Warming, Swedes Study Their Plates

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While it has its imperfections, it's a great idea...

 

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>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/world/europe/23degrees.html

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>> To Cut Global Warming, Swedes Study Their Plates

>>

>> By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

>> Published: October 22, 2009

>>

>> STOCKHOLM -- Shopping for oatmeal, Helena Bergstrom, 37, admitted that

>> she was flummoxed by the label on the blue box reading, " Climate

>> declared: .87 kg CO2 per kg of product. "

>>

>> " Right now, I don't know what this means, " said Ms. Bergstrom, a

>> pharmaceutical company employee.

>>

>> But if a new experiment here succeeds, she and millions of other

>> Swedes will soon find out. New labels listing the carbon dioxide

>> emissions associated with the production of foods, from whole wheat

>> pasta to fast food burgers, are appearing on some grocery items and

>> restaurant menus around the country.

>>

>> People who live to eat might dismiss this as silly. But changing one's

>> diet can be as effective in reducing emissions of climate-changing

>> gases as changing the car one drives or doing away with the clothes

>> dryer, scientific experts say.

>>

>> " We're the first to do it, and it's a new way of thinking for us, "

>> said Ulf Bohman, head of the Nutrition Department at the Swedish

>> National Food Administration, which was given the task last year of

>> creating new food guidelines giving equal weight to climate and

>> health. " We're used to thinking about safety and nutrition as one

>> thing and environmental as another. "

>>

>> Some of the proposed new dietary guidelines, released over the summer,

>> may seem startling to the uninitiated. They recommend that Swedes

>> favor carrots over cucumbers and tomatoes, for example. (Unlike

>> carrots, the latter two must be grown in heated greenhouses here,

>> consuming energy.)

>>

>> They are not counseled to eat more fish, despite the health benefits,

>> because Europe's stocks are depleted.

>>

>> And somewhat less surprisingly, they are advised to substitute beans

>> or chicken for red meat, in view of the heavy greenhouse gas emissions

>> associated with raising cattle.

>>

>> " For consumers, it's hard, " Mr. Bohman acknowledged. " You are getting

>> environmental advice that you have to coordinate with, 'How can I eat

>> healthier?' "

>>

>> Many Swedish diners say it is just too much to ask. " I wish I could

>> say that the information has made me change what I eat, but it

>> hasn't, " said Richard Lalander, 27, who was eating a Max hamburger

>> (1.7 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions) in the shadow of a menu

>> board revealing that a chicken sandwich (0.4 kilograms) would have

>> been better for the planet.

>>

>> Yet if the new food guidelines were religiously heeded, some experts

>> say, Sweden could cut its emissions from food production by 20 to 50

>> percent. An estimated 25 percent of the emissions produced by people

>> in industrialized nations can be traced to the food they eat,

>> according to recent research here. And foods vary enormously in the

>> emissions released in their production.

>>

>> While today's American or European shoppers may be well versed in

>> checking for nutrients, calories or fat content, they often have

>> little idea of whether eating tomatoes, chicken or rice is good or bad

>> for the climate.

>>

>> Complicating matters, the emissions impact of, say, a carrot, can vary

>> by a factor of 10, depending how and where it is grown.

>>

>> Earlier studies of food emissions focused on the high environmental

>> costs of transporting food and raising cattle. But more nuanced

>> research shows that the emissions depend on many factors, including

>> the type of soil used to grow the food and whether a dairy farmer uses

>> local rapeseed or imported soy for cattle feed.

>>

>> Business groups, farming cooperatives and organic labeling programs as

>> well as the government have gamely come up with coordinated ways to

>> identify food choices.

>>

>> Max, Sweden's largest homegrown chain of burger restaurants, now puts

>> emissions calculations next to each item on its menu boards.

>> Lantmannen, Sweden's largest farming group, has begun placing precise

>> labels on some categories of foods in grocery stores, including

>> chicken, oatmeal, barley and pasta.

>>

>> Consumers who pay attention may learn that emissions generated by

>> growing the nation's most popular grain, rice, are two to three times

>> those of little-used barley, for example.

>>

>> Some producers argue that the new programs are overly complex and

>> threaten profits. The dietary recommendations, which are being

>> circulated for comment not just in Sweden but across the European

>> Union, have been attacked by the Continent's meat industry, Norwegian

>> salmon farmers and Malaysian palm oil growers, to name a few.

>>

>> " This is trial and error; we're still trying to see what works, " Mr.

>> Bohman said.

>>

>> Next year, KRAV, Scandinavia's main organic certification program,

>> will start requiring farmers to convert to low-emissions techniques if

>> they want to display its coveted seal on products, meaning that most

>> greenhouse tomatoes can no longer be called organic.

>>

>> Those standards have stirred some protests. " There are farmers who are

>> happy and farmers who say they are being ruined, " said Johan Cejie,

>> manager of climate issues for KRAV.

>>

>> For example, he said, farmers with high concentrations of peat soil on

>> their property may no longer be able to grow carrots, since plowing

>> peat releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide; to get the organic

>> label, they may have to switch to feed crops that require no plowing.

>>

>> Next year KRAV will require hothouses to use biofuels for heating.

>> Dairy farms will have to obtain at least 70 percent of the food for

>> their herds locally; many previously imported cheap soy from Brazil,

>> generating transport emissions and damaging the rain forest as trees

>> were cleared to make way for farmland.

>>

>> The Swedish effort grew out of a 2005 study by Sweden's national

>> environmental agency on how personal consumption generates emissions.

>> Researchers found that 25 percent of national per capita emissions --

>> two metric tons per year -- was attributable to eating.

>>

>> The government realized that encouraging a diet that tilted more

>> toward chicken or vegetables and educating farmers on lowering

>> emissions generally could have an enormous impact.

>>

>> Sweden has been a world leader in finding new ways to reduce

>> emissions. It has vowed to eliminate the use of fossil fuel for

>> electricity by 2020 and cars that run on gasoline by 2030.

>>

>> To arrive at numbers for their company's first carbon dioxide labels,

>> scientists at Lantmannen analyzed life cycles of 20 products. These

>> take into account emissions generated by fertilizer, fuel for

>> harvesting machinery, packaging and transport.

>>

>> They decided to examine one representative product in each category --

>> say, pasta -- rather than performing analyses for fusilli versus penne,

>> or one brand versus another. " Every climate declaration is hugely

>> time-intensive, " said Claes Johansson, Lantmannen's director of

>> sustainability.

>>

>> A new generation of Swedish business leaders is stepping up to the

>> climate challenge. Richard Bergfors, president of Max, his family's

>> burger chain, voluntarily hired a consultant to calculate its carbon

>> footprint; 75 percent was created by its meat.

>>

>> " We decided to be honest and put it all out there and say we'll do

>> everything we can to reduce, " said Mr. Bergfors, 40. In addition to

>> putting emissions data on the menu, Max eliminated boxes from its

>> children's meals, installed low-energy LED lights and pays for

>> wind-generated electricity.

>>

>> Since the emissions counts started appearing on the menu, sales of

>> climate-friendly items have risen 20 percent. Still, plenty of people

>> head to a burger restaurant lusting only for a burger.

>>

>> Kristian Eriksson, 26, an information technology specialist, looked

>> embarrassed when asked about the burger he was eating at an outdoor

>> table.

>>

>> " You feel guilty picking red meat, " he said.

>>

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