complexify.
Movable Feasts
Over breakfast this morning, I had the pleasure of hearing Sarah Murray talk about food. Although the subject wasn't my croissants and coffee, her new book covers almost everything else: Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat.
In the photo above she is demonstrating the tiffin lunchbox in which hundreds of thousands of Indians receive their daily lunches through a hub-and-spoke network with an efficiency and error rate worthy of study by FedEx. (I won't attempt to retell the story here, but indeed even the Six Sigma Institute took a close look at the amazing "dabbawala" system).
From olive oil to bananas to boneless salmon, Sarah's talk was full of illuminating facts and figures. Much of this goes against conventional wisdom, particularly with regard to "carbon footprints" (the greenhouse gases produced in an activity).
One (allegedly delicious) example comes from Walker's Smoky Bacon potato crisps (i.e. chips):
- One bag has a carbon footprint of 74g
- Only 9% of that comes from transportation and distribution
- Largest source of CO2 is the frying/cooking of the potatoes, which takes much more energy with wet potatoes
- Farmers are paid on weight, so their incentive is to keep potatoes moist ( and farmers thus store potatoes in heated greenhouses, further using energy/producing CO2)
- Thus changing the pricing system away from wet weight would simulatenously benefit the farmers and the potato chip manufacturers, not to mention the environment.
Similarly, by filling trucks and containers more efficiently, load optimization software has arguable had a bigger impact on CO2 reduction than has local food production. Some may spin this as an argument for "big food," but it also offers hope for local/regional alliances of food producers to coordinate distribution more efficiently .
Ms. Murray doesn't pretend to provide simple solutions to these complicated issues, but her rich treatment of the subject offers insights for people from across the political and environmental spectrum.
While the subject is food, the book has tremendous relevance to the present debates over globalization, trade policy, biofuels, and national security. And of course I equally recommend it for all those who enjoy learning more about the often surprising provenance of the food they put in their mouths.
Sarah Murray's book is available here from Amazon. My thanks to the Aspen Institute for organizing this event.
Movable Feasts
Over breakfast this morning, I had the pleasure of hearing Sarah Murray talk about food. Although the subject wasn't my croissants and coffee, her new book covers almost everything else: Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat.
In the photo above she is demonstrating the tiffin lunchbox in which hundreds of thousands of Indians receive their daily lunches through a hub-and-spoke network with an efficiency and error rate worthy of study by FedEx. (I won't attempt to retell the story here, but indeed even the Six Sigma Institute took a close look at the amazing "dabbawala" system).
From olive oil to bananas to boneless salmon, Sarah's talk was full of illuminating facts and figures. Much of this goes against conventional wisdom, particularly with regard to "carbon footprints" (the greenhouse gases produced in an activity).
One (allegedly delicious) example comes from Walker's Smoky Bacon potato crisps (i.e. chips):
- One bag has a carbon footprint of 74g
- Only 9% of that comes from transportation and distribution
- Largest source of CO2 is the frying/cooking of the potatoes, which takes much more energy with wet potatoes
- Farmers are paid on weight, so their incentive is to keep potatoes moist ( and farmers thus store potatoes in heated greenhouses, further using energy/producing CO2)
- Thus changing the pricing system away from wet weight would simulatenously benefit the farmers and the potato chip manufacturers, not to mention the environment.
Similarly, by filling trucks and containers more efficiently, load optimization software has arguable had a bigger impact on CO2 reduction than has local food production. Some may spin this as an argument for "big food," but it also offers hope for local/regional alliances of food producers to coordinate distribution more efficiently .
Ms. Murray doesn't pretend to provide simple solutions to these complicated issues, but her rich treatment of the subject offers insights for people from across the political and environmental spectrum.
While the subject is food, the book has tremendous relevance to the present debates over globalization, trade policy, biofuels, and national security. And of course I equally recommend it for all those who enjoy learning more about the often surprising provenance of the food they put in their mouths.
Sarah Murray's book is available here from Amazon. My thanks to the Aspen Institute for organizing this event.