<Let's Talk Gas Tax (Poll)The Oil DrumDrumBeat: September 19, 2006>
<BBC: Driven by OilThe Oil Drum: EuropeOil export - import model for the UK>

30 comments on UK Agriculture, Organic Farming and Relocalisation

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

alistairC on September 19, 2006 - 11:39am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
A couple of years ago I shipped a container load of (organic) wine from France to New Zealand.

I was rather shocked to discover that assembling the 6000 bottles from the various regions (Bordeaux, Burgundy etc) to a warehouse in Marseille was more expensive than shipping them from there to Auckland (from memory, up to 20 euro-cents, and less than 10 cents, per bottle respectively).

So when people asked me if shipping stuff around the world wasn't contradictory with the idea of organics, I asked them if any of their organic food had ever travelled by truck.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
JN2 on September 19, 2006 - 11:58am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Good point. A friend of mine maintains the carbon cost is less to ship timber from Latvia to London (3,900 miles) than it is to truck it down from Carlisle (300 miles).
0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Chris Vernon on September 21, 2006 - 2:49am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
That's interesting. I think people talking up relocalisation as a response to peak oil frequently fail to recognise just how incredibly efficient container shipping of non-perishable goods is.
0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.