What's the Green Thing to Do?

[steepholm]

Okay, the greenest thing would be to grow my own veg, or failing that use the excellent local organic supermarket, but given that I'm too lazy to do the first, and can't afford to do the second all the time, I often find myself in a supermarket.

When I'm there, I make a point of looking at the Reduced shelves, for food that's near its sell-by date. There are often bargains to be had, and it's stuff that would otherwise be thrown away, so buying it is good for the environment too - a double win.

But a lot of fresh food still gets thrown out by the supermarkets at the end of each day, and this has got me wondering whether it wouldn't be eco-friendly to buy more frozen. Of course, the electricity represents a carbon cost, but less food gets wasted - along with all the energy that went into growing, processing, transporting and (perhaps) chilling that food.

I only have a fridge-freezer, so buying huge amounts of frozen food isn't an option for me, but as a general rule, is it greener than fresh - supposing you're buying from a big supermarket in the first place? I've no idea how to figure that one out.

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

There's no universal equation. A lot of unsold supermarket food here goes into a scheme that sends it to shelters and charities, for instance and quite a bit of the frozen vegies come from the other side of the world (universal seasonality!). What you need, though, is an equation for food miles as well as one for distribution and waste reduction.

I know the theory - but I've never been able to apply it satisfactorily. When I can. I buy from a farmers' market (ours is like an organic supermarket, but fresher and cheaper and the money goes straight to the farmers - I can only go when I get a lift from a friend, though, so some years it's often and others, very seldom), but beyond that, I just make my best guess and, when my best guess fails, I buy the cheapest, since money is a big issue in my life currently.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Air miles are another factor again. I'm not sure whether point of origin is shown as clearly on frozen food as on fresh, but even if it is, one can't assume its journey to the shop has been direct, rather than via a storage facility at the far end of the country.