European retail chains are requesting more documentation regarding the environmental aspects of the products they purchase. Especially in the UK, the terms “food miles” and “carbon footprint” are gaining in popularity. The agricultural faculty of the University of Aarhus in Denmark recently carried out a life cycle analysis of pork from Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK on behalf of the Danish Meat Association.

The term “Food Miles” means the amount of greenhouse gas emissions (g CO2) during the transport of foodstuffs from the producer to the consumer. “Carbon Footprint” refers to the entire life cycle of a product and its greenhouse gas emissions. This term covers the entire value chain.

In the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions, the soybean crop growing in Argentina, the feed production in Denmark and the entire pig production chain including fertiliser production, slaughtering and meat dispatch was included. Through adding all emission values, a realistic value of greenhouse emissions can be calculated per kilo of pork.

According to the life cycle analysis, 1kg pork contributes 3.6kg CO2 equivalents to global warming. As a comparison, replacing a normal 60-watt lamp with an energy saving lamp burning for an hour provides a yearly reduction of 13kg of greenhouse emissions. Transporting by truck to Munich or by ship to Tokyo, the amount increases to 3.7-3.8kg CO2 equivalents per kg pork. This indicates that “Food Miles” do not have much of an environmental effect and represent less than 1% of the entire emissions in the production chain.

The study revealed no large differences between Danish, Dutch and British greenhouse gas emissions for pork.