A fifth of food-related greenhouse gas emissions have been proven to come from transporting food across the globe, as researchers have strongly advised that in order for the emission to be curbed, people should begin to eat local, I.e They should eat food planted in their region.
These groups of researchers in Australia disclosed that transporting food products across the globe, causes three gigatons of gasses to be emitted every year, and six percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, are emissions linked to the transportation of food.
It was disclosed that the amount of food emissions linked to trucks, ships, trains, and planes are seven times higher than previously believed. It is said to exceed the emissions from the transportation of other food commodities.
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For example, transport accounts for only 7 percent of industry and utilities emissions. Food transport emissions are almost half as high as direct emissions from road vehicles.
It was disclosed that fruit and vegetables make up a third of food transport emissions because they need twice the amount of emissions to transport than to produce. The study conducted revealed that China, The United States, India, and Russia are top food transportation emitters, while rich countries are disproportionate contributors.
Researchers suggest that people should eat locally to reduce emissions. They disclosed that if people ate locally made food products, about 0.38 gigatons of emissions created from driving, which takes about 2,200 pounds to the sun and back, 6,000 times would be saved.
Unfortunately, such a suggestion seems to have some major constraints, because a lot of countries/regions do not have the capacity to produce their food locally. These countries, most especially countries in the African region, largely depend on other regions for food.
Many underdeveloped and developing countries are often ravaged by drought and harsh climatic conditions which affect the planting of crops thereby limiting the availability of food in their region.
However, it is pertinent that the governments of developed countries take this into cognizance to implement practical ways to reduce the amount of imported food they eat, by planting them in their own country.
Many developed countries have the land mass and capacity to cultivate some of the food products they usually import. Rather than constantly importing it into their country, researchers suggest that the government of these rich countries should be intentional about taking more steps to reduce the amount of imported food that they eat by planting it.
One effective way of doing that is to increase the capacity to cultivate food at every corner of the country. Governments of countries are also implored to invest in cleaner energy sources for vehicles and incentivize food businesses to use less emission-intensive production and distributor methods, such as natural refrigerants.
It is known that Carbon dioxide is largely contained in greenhouse emissions which is a major gas that drives global climate change. Greenhouse gasses have been proven to have far-ranging environmental and health effects, as they cause climatic conditions also trapping heat in the atmosphere.This further contributes to respiratory diseases due to air pollution.
There are so many human activities that cause greenhouse gas emissions, but the transportation sector has been disclosed to generate the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing approximately 20 percent of all carbon dioxide globally. Rich countries might not necessarily have issues eating locally as suggested by researchers, but they also need to transport food commodities to regions for export.