When it comes to local food, protectionists have hijacked environmental issues, argues Mark Ashurst. A recent report, “African’s Flying Vegetables,” from the London-based Africa Research Institute, which Ashurst directs, shows it’s better for the planet to buy from African smallholders than local farmers.
Macro Visscher | March 2010 issue
Photo: Stephanie Rushton
Think global, buy local. What’s wrong with that?
“The carbon footprint of most of our food comes overwhelmingly from production, not transport. An American survey talked about, on average, 85 percent from production, 15 percent from transport. People who are genuinely anxious about pollution keep telling us to buy local. But you should not buy food on the basis of ‘food miles’ alone; you need to look at the life cycle – from field to plate. Yet the environment argument is now also increasingly being used by rival food producers who are less globally competitive than their African peers and don’t worry at all about the carbon footprint of African vegetables.”
Beans from a local farmer or from a Kenyan small farmer, which do you choose?
“Supporting your local farmer would be correct from and environmental perspective if he’s working in the same way a Kenyan smallholder would, which is unlikely because in the West a small farmer still has quite a large plot and the farming will probably be mechanized. Kenyan horticulture is between four and six times less carbon-intensive than mechanized farming in Europe. I would choose Kenyan beans for ethical reason. I think it’s important to support Africans whose lives can be improved by getting access to the world market.”
What if it’s a local organic farmer?
“Organic farming is well worth supporting, but some of the organic lobby groups have tended to be rivals rather that friends of African smallholders. I think the ethical case for buying from African smallholders trumps the other claims.”
Still African beans have to be flown in.
“Yes, but here in the U.K., carbon emissions from exports of African horticulture are 0.1 percent of our total carbon emissions. Two thirds of Kenya’s horticulture harvest is exported in the holds of passenger aircraft that bring tourists home from Africa’s natural parks and beaches. If we are to avoid buying African vegetables, as local food activists advocate, we are penalizing some of the world’s most vulnerable people for the carbon footprint of holidaymakers. Looking at ‘food miles’ is misleading and prejudicial to African suppliers.”
