Food Miles Tutorial
In this guide, we present detailed information, custom software, and step-by-step instructions that give you everything you need to construct a local food directory with food miles information for your region.
This site serves two related aims:
- To connect people in Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands of British Columbia with sources of locally produced food.
- To highlight the role of using local food in reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
In the process of researching and designing this site, we have:
- Refined the standard formula used for calculating "food miles" to include direct calculations of GHG emissions.
- Produced specialized software for calculating food miles and
- Collected and input detailed datasets on sources of locally produced food, import distances from many world ports to British Columbia, sources of international food imports to BC, and greenhouse gas emissions by transport mode.
For the benefit of keeners - or, specifically, anyone else wanting to do similar research - we've prepared this detailed guide. Here we review the specific steps needed to gather data and calculate "food miles", including primary sources of data. The software we've produced is also available for download, along with setup instructions. Greenhouse gases - primarily, carbon, but also a host of others - are released when fossil fuels like oil and coal are burned. Pollution from fossil fuel use builds up in the atmosphere, trapping in heat and contributing to global warming. If it continues unchecked, global warming may produce major climate change, which in turn threatens disastrous impacts on ecologies and human societies.
Long-distance transport of commodities like fuel is a major source of GHG pollution. So by buying and consuming locally-produced food, we can get fresh and nutritious meals while at the same time helping slow global warming.
But how much difference would it make?
That's what we set out to discover....