"Food
Miles Comparative Energy/Emissions Performance of New Zealand’s Agriculture
Industry"
Lincoln University , Canterbury, New Zealand
http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/documents/2328_rr285_s13389.pdf
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Scoop News
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0707/S00063.htm
NZ dairying more efficient than UK, greenhouse gases included
Friday, 27 July 2007, 5:22 pm
Press Release: Lincoln University
27 July 2007
News from Lincoln University
New `food miles´ report shows NZ dairying still more efficient than UK,
greenhouse gases included
The "food miles" efficiency of the New Zealand dairy industry
in producing and delivering products for the British market has received new
confirmation from a Lincoln University report released today. (27 July)
The report shows that in the production of New Zealand dairy product the
generation of greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide,
all implicated in global climate change - is less than in the British dairy
system.
The Lincoln study´s central finding is that the UK produces 35 percent
more emissions per kilogram of milk solid than New Zealand and 31 percent
more emissions per hectare than New Zealand - even including transportation
from New Zealand to Britain and the carbon dioxide generated in that process.
The 25-page report, authored by Professor Caroline Saunders, Director of
Lincoln University´s Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, and Andrew
Barber of The Agribusiness Group, is titled Comparative Energy and Greenhouse
Gas Emissions of New Zealand´s and the UK´s Dairy Industry.
It follows the first Food Miles report by Saunders, Barber and research
assistant Greg Taylor, published in July last year.
That report, which drew considerable critical response from UK trade and
environmental interests, examined energy use and carbon dioxide emissions
associated with the production of four products - milk solids, lamb, apples
and onions.
In a landmark conclusion it found that there was greater energy
efficiency in New Zealand
for the production of dairy product, lamb and apples, and an advantage in
relation to onions if storage costs for the UK product were included in the
calculations.
This latest report focuses exclusively on the dairy sector and adds in
greenhouse gas emissions.
The methane emissions originate from enteric fermentation in dairy cows
and cattle and from manure management. The nitrous oxide emissions are a
combination of direct and indirect emissions from synthetic fertiliser and
animal waste.
The earlier report, which restricted the analysis to energy use and
carbon dioxide emissions, showed that New Zealand was even more
efficient for dairy production than is shown in the new analysis which adds
in methane and nitrous oxide. The new work, however, clearly demonstrates
that the efficiency balance remains strongly in favour of New Zealand.
"New Zealand´s efficiency factor in trade cannot be ignored,"
says Professor Saunders.
"Our report clearly demonstrates the fallacy of using a simplistic
concept like `food miles´ as a basis for restrictive trade and marketing
policies.
"It is obvious that production systems and not transport are the
major contributor to the differences in greenhouse gas emissions and energy
use."
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