The Carbon
Express

Your task:

• You are going to compare 5 commonly bought products which you can buy at your local farm shop and from a supermarket.
• From your research, you can make up a ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ list for these products which you might use to encourage people to buy ‘locally’ produced food.
   
  

Collecting the data:

• Visit you local farm shop or market stall and find the following locally produced items. 
1. Apples
2. Carrots
3. Potatoes
4. Cheese
5. Chicken
• Buy a normal amount of each and record its weight and cost.
• Try and find out where each was produced.
• Calculate how far it has come to get to the shop – you may have to ask the shop assistant.
• Record how far you have travelled to get to and from the shop.
• Record the data in a comparison table.
  
• Repeat this at your local supermarket but choose food that is not locally produced. Try and choose similar weig hts that you buy. You may find it a lot more difficult to find out where it came from and how far it has travelled.  It normally gives its origins on the packaging.  It will have been distributed from the Supermarkets main depot and you might get some idea where this is by asking the manager.

Analysis:

1. Use the calculator from the  Life Cycle Project to calculate CO₂ emissions saved by buying local food. 
2. Complete the comparison table. (download).

Actions:

• Use your results to ‘lobby’ your friends to buy locally.  You could:
  
  
1. Produce a leaflet.
2. Produce a PowerPoint presentation.
3. Produce a poster.
    

Do give a balanced view as there will be some advantages of buying supermarket food which is not locally produced.  A list of advantages can be found on the Life Cycle home page.

Discussion:

• By buying locally, do you think you can make a significant contribution towards reducing your carbon emissions?
• Should supermarkets be made to sell more local produce?
• Eating ‘out of season’ foods will mean higher food miles.  Should we only eat food that is in season?