Ecological Footprints of Food

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Journal of Environmental Policy &Planning

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Sustainable Food Consumption at a Sub-national Level:An Ecological Footprint, Nutritional and EconomicAnalysis

To cite this Article:Collins, Andrea and Fairchild, Ruth , 'Sustainable FoodConsumption at a Sub-national Level: An Ecological Footprint, Nutritional andEconomic Analysis', Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 9:1, 5 - 30To link to this article: DOI:10.1080/15239080701254875URL:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15239080701254875PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLEFull terms and conditions of use:http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdfThisarticlemaybeusedforresearch,teachingandprivatestudypurposes.Anysubstantialorsystematicreproduction,re-distribution,re-selling,loanorsub-licensing,systematicsupplyordistributioninanyformtoanyoneisexpresslyforbidden.Thepublisherdoesnotgiveanywarrantyexpressorimpliedormakeanyrepresentationthatthecontentswillbecompleteoraccurateoruptodate.Theaccuracyofanyinstructions,formulaeanddrugdosesshouldbeindependentlyverifiedwithprimarysources.Thepublishershallnotbeliableforanyloss,actions,claims,proceedings,demandorcostsordamageswhatsoeverorhowsoevercausedarisingdirectlyorindirectlyinconnectionwithorarising out of the use of this material. © Taylor and Francis 2007

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Sustainable Food Consumption at a Sub-national Level: AnEcological Footprint, Nutritional and Economic Analysis

ANDREA COLLINS

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& RUTH FAIRCHILD

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Ã

ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK;

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Food Research Consultancy Unit, Cardiff School of Health Sciences,University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, UK

A

BSTRACT

This paper uses the ecological footprint to measure the environmental impactof food and drink consumption at a sub-national level. The case study area selected isCardiff, the capital city of Wales. The paper begins by explaining what an ecological footprint is and how it is measured. We describe how an ecological footprint was calculated for Cardiff, with speciﬁc emphasis on the food and drink component. The main part of this paper focuses on Cardiff’s ecological footprint results for food and drink and how we mightbeginto make residents’ consumptionmoresustainable. Wepresentand analyse the resultsof several scenarios developed to reduce the environmental impact of Cardiff’s food anddrink consumption. These scenarios focus on changing the type of food and drink thatthe average Cardiff resident consumes at home. Here we also analyse the results from anutritional and economic perspective. Finally, in the Conclusions section we discuss thevalue of using the ecological footprint to measure the environmental impact of consumptionat a sub-national level. We also discuss how this combined analysis can provide a morecomprehensive account of food and drink consumption at the sub-national level, andbetter inform policy decisions on sustainable food and drink consumption.

K

EY WORDS

: Ecological footprint, expenditure, nutrition, sustainable foodconsumption

Introduction

The production and consumption of food is resource intensive and has beenshown to have large environmental consequences (McMichael, 2005; White,2000). Our main aim has been to investigate how we can begin to make Cardiff’sfood and drink consumption more sustainable. Cardiff provides an interestingcase study for three main reasons. First, food and drink consumption was respon-sible for almost 25% of Cardiff’s total ecological footprint in 2001 (see Collins

et al.

, 2005, 2006). Second, Cardiff has recently produced its ﬁrst ‘Local Food

Correspondence Address

: Andrea Collins, ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accont-ability, Sustainability and Socity (BRASS), Cardiff University, 55 Park Place, Cardiff CF103AT, UK, Fax: +44 (0) 20876061; Tel.: +44 (0) 20 876562; Email: collinsa@cardiff.ac.uk

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and Health Strategy’ (Cardiff Health Alliance, 2006). A key part of this strategyis concerned with promoting sustainable food consumption. Combining ecologi-cal footprint and nutritional analysis could assist in the implementation of this Strategy. Finally, reducing the environmental impact of the average Cardiff diet may only require residents to make marginal changes to the type of food and drink they consume and therefore could make a sustainable diet moreachievable compared to some diets suggested to date, e.g., Duchin (2005) andLeitzmann (2005).The ecological footprint has provided us with a new assessment tool bywhich to gain insights into the environmental impacts of food and drink con-sumption patterns and to begin to assess the likely effect of different scenariosin reducing this impact. We also consider how these changes impact on the con-sumer from a nutritional and economic perspective. The paper is organized intosix sections. Below in Section 2 we brieﬂy explain what an ecological footprintis and how it is measured. In Section 3, we outline why Cardiff Council wantedto measurethe city’s ecological footprint and thereasonfor including ‘sustainabil-ity’ in the Cardiff Local Food and Health Strategy. Section 4 reports on Cardiff’secological footprint results for food and drink in 2001. In Section 5 we presentthe results of several scenarios developed to reduce Cardiff’s footprint for dom-estic food and drink consumption. In this section we also analyse each scenariofrom a nutritional and economic perspective. Finally, in the conclusions sectionwe brieﬂy explain the value of using the ecological footprint to analyse theenvironmental impact of food and drink consumption at a sub-national level.We also discuss the value of combining the ecological footprint with a nutritionaland economic analysis and how this can provide a morecomprehensive approachfrom which to inform policy decisions on sustainable food consumption.

What is an Ecological Footprint?

The ecological footprint is an aggregated indicator of demand on nature and ismeasured using a standardized area unit termed a ‘global hectare’ (gha), and isusually expressed on a per capita basis (gha

/

cap). The ecological footprintestimates the area of land required to support the resource consumption of adeﬁned population, usually for one year. For example, the demands of that popu-lation in terms of their food, travel and energy use. This demand on nature can becompared with the Earth’s available biocapacity, which translates into an averageof 1.8 gha

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cap in 2001 (WWF, 2006). However, humanity is currently using 2.2gha

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cap which indicates a situation of ‘overshoot’ where nature’s capital is being spent faster than it is being regenerated. Overshoot may permanentlyreduce the Earth’s ecological capacity (WWF, 2006).As the ecological footprint relates to the consumption activities of a deﬁnedpopulation it has potentially many applications. For example, the footprint has been applied to organizations, cities, regions and individuals. There is currentlyno complete catalogue of studies undertaken in the UK, however, based on inter-views conducted with key footprint consultants it is estimated that between 60and 70 footprint studies were undertaken between 1999 and 2004 (see Collins &Flynn, in press). In the UK, local, regional and devolved governments haveshown a strong interest in the footprint and the Welsh Assembly Governmenthas formally adopted the ecological footprint as one of its headline indicators6

A. Collins & R. Fairchild