Wonky Fruit and Veg: The Carbon Footprint of Food

On our recent ‘life admin’ trip to the supermarket, we were pleasantly surprised to find that it now sells a range of ‘wonky veg’ and at a fraction of the price of the ‘non-wonky’ variety. Realising the environmental benefit of using these veg provides some simple satisfaction, but it also poses some important questions. Upon closer inspection of the vegetables, I can’t help scratching my head on how most of these ended up being classified as ‘wonky’ in the first place.

Take a look for yourselves, the picture on this article shows the vegetables (and wonky fruit) themselves. It makes me wonder how things could have become so silly – that perfectly edible fruit and vegetables have been previously discarded because they don’t conform to superficial ‘norms’. What has driven us to such irrational reasoning? Has it been led by supermarkets themselves, or was it driven by consumers? Perhaps, as I suspect, it was a bit of both.

Finger pointing aside, it’s great to now see some parts of the industry selling the ‘wonky’ fruit and vegetables. It feels like bit by bit progress on the long and windy road to sustainability.

In regards to the benefit of using these wonky veg, let’s look at the environmental impacts of fruit and vegetables, starting with their carbon footprint….

Before discussing the carbon footprint of food, it’s important to point out that the environmental impact of food is composed of far more than just a carbon footprint. There are other important environmental impact indicators such as eutrophication, acidification and water footprint, amongst others. However, the fact remains that carbon footprint is still the indicator that gets the most attention. It is also one of the most accurate environmental indicators and one of the easier to comprehend, although there is admittedly still some work to do in that regards.

Moving on to the carbon footprint of fruit and vegetables. The carbon footprint of growing fruit and vegetables arises from the use of fertilisers, consumption of energy for farming, transport and of course packaging. Calculating the carbon footprint of all this is an involved activity, but fortunately for us there are many studies that have already done this.
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The carbon footprint of common fruit and veg is shown in the two figures below. The data has been extracted from a report* by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), an environmental charity based in the UK.

​The above chart shows some of the fruit and vegetables with larger carbon footprints per unit weight. Sweet peppers have the highest carbon footprint from the selection, followed by cucumbers, which was a surprise to see near the top of the list.

​So what about lower carbon footprint foods? The chart below shows fruit and veg that are below the weighted average carbon footprint per kg.

The weighted average footprint was calculated based upon the carbon footprint per unit mass and the total sales volumes. The data shows that amongst the lowest carbon footprint vegetables and fruit are apples, potatoes, pears and avocado. The latter was surprising to discover.
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What does this really tell us? We have to be a little careful here, in that data per unit of mass is not necessarily the best indicator. It’s hard to imagine anyone eating half a kilogram of sweet peppers, cucumbers or asparagus. However, I’m sure there are many people who have feasted on a mountain of potato fries. Quantity clearly has a role to play in the assessment of carbon footprints. That said, the data per unit mass still presents us with interesting information. 

Back to the ‘wonky’ veg, it seems as if both carrots and lemons have a lower than average carbon footprint. Despite this there are still good environmental savings to be had. What’s perhaps most interesting about wonky veg, e.g. carrots, is that it has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of all vegetables. By using the wonky carrots, instead of letting them go to waste, the useful crop yield improves, e.g. from the same total carbon footprint for a farm. This has the benefit of a lower carbon footprint per unit mass of carrot produced.

 

This therefore provides good progress on the road to sustainability. However, as always, we can’t quite stop there. The next step forward is probably to provide more environmentally friendly packaging, e.g. move away from ‘disposable’ plastic. This nicely demonstrates that if we are ever to realise true sustainability and sustainable development, then we can’t afford to rest of our laurels.

But for now, it’s bit by bit progress on the long and windy road to sustainability…

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References:
* Data extracted from: WRAP, 2013.  An initial assessment of the environmental impact of grocery products. Final Report – March 2013. Available from WRAP.
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