THE GALLON ENVIRONMENT LETTER

Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment Fisherville, Ontario, Canada Tel. 416 410-0432, Fax: 416 362-5231 Editorial: editor@gallonletter.ca Subscriptions: subscriptions@gallonletter.ca Vol. 17, No. 6, December 3, 2012 HOLIDAY BAKING AND THE ENVIRONMENT Rather than reviewing environmentally preferred gifts or synthetic versus natural Christmas trees, as we have done several times in recent years, this year's holiday editorial theme is home baking. Is it better for the environment to buy or make our Christmas cake, pudding, mince pies, or whatever? As usual when reviewing comparative environmental footprints, the answer is not entirely definitive but it appears to be sufficiently clear that it may be surprising. Of course, our conclusions relate entirely to environmental impacts of production and exclude healthfulness, ingredient preferences, and other aspects. Cakes and pies are too variable in composition to allow the kind of overview environmental comparison that GallonLetter's editor sees as most helpful for purchase or lifestyle decisions. If we have to compile a detailed environmental inventory every time we want to make a purchase or production decision then it is unlikely that we will ever be able to 'green' our personal supply chains. Inevitably, most decisions will only ever be made using general guidelines regarding environmentally preferred products. So our quick editorial review of environmentally preferred baking will be based on published European data for bread making: home baking versus industrial baking. Bread baking is a fairly simple system for analysis because the inputs are essentially similar for home baked bread as for industrial bread. The major key differences come down to baking technology, packaging, and transportation. The environmental impact of bread packaging is quite small - most likely less than 5% of the total environmental footprint of the loaf of bread. The environmental impact of transportation is not measurable on a generic basis. Such factors as the distance from the bakery to the retail store to the purchasers's home have to be taken into account. Similar factors apply to collection of the ingredients: how far does the grain travel, how far is it from the flour mill to the bakery, and so on. While it is a gross approximation, it would appear not unreasonable to consider that the overall transportation of raw materials and finished product is not necessarily significantly different for the home baked bread as for the industrial baked bread, though in an individual case the differences could be quite large and in either direction. So the major measurable difference comes down to the baking. Baking one loaf or one cake in a home oven almost certainly uses more energy than an industrial oven uses per unit of production. The energy used for baking of one cake or pie at home will be cut almost, but not quite, in half if two cakes or pies are cooked at the same time. If three are cooked at the same time, the energy footprint of baking will be cut even further. There have been a number of Life Cycle Assessments of bread production. Essentially many have concluded that industrially baked bread, and, by extension, we assume cakes and pies and the like, will most likely have a lower energy footprint than home baked bread. This extends to the full environmental footprint if the industrial baking and the home baking use the same ingredients. GallonDaily does not want this news to be seen as excessively Grinch-like, especially as baking is so much a part of the holiday season, so we conclude this editorial with a link to one of the LCAs of bread that focusses on how to reduce its environmental footprint. Published by authors at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Heidelberg, Germany, the report concludes: If land use is more important than all the other environmental impact categories: grain from conventional farming has to be preferred to grain that was produced organically

If land use is of minor relevance compared to saving of resources, greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, acidification and eutrophication: grain from organic farming has to be preferred to grain that was produced conventionally Consumers are advised to minimize the environmental impact of bread by buying bread from organically grown cereals in a supermarket. If bread from organic grain is not available in the supermarket, customers should ask for it to increase the demand and buy it in a bakery. If baking at home, the paper concludes that cereals from organic production and flour from industrial mills have least environmental implications. Other advice is: Use a domestic bread maker instead of an oven. If an oven is used, increase the degree of utilisation. Dont use a car to transport bakery products. If a car is used, buy other groceries at the same time and without driving detours (on the way from/to work etc.). Best wishes for your holiday season! Colin Isaacs Editor Life cycle analysis of bread production a comparison of eight different options. G.A. Reinhardt, J. Braschkat, A. Patyk & M. Quirin. Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg. http://www.lcafood.dk/lca_conf/contrib/g_reinhardt.pdf