Fruit and vegetable consumption and waste in Australia - VicHealth

Environment and Its Relationship with the Food System
In 1998 it was estimated that food consumption patterns in developed countries such as
Australia exceeded sustainable levels by at least a factor of four. This is in part because
emissions of the major greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and
hydrofluorcarbons – are closely associated with food production and consumption
(Carlsson-Kanyama, 1998). In addition to this link with global climate change, our food
supply system is a significant player in other ecological problems, such as those around
water usage and biodiversity conservation. However, evidence indicates that some diets
are more harmful than others and most consumers have the ability to choose foods with
less negative ecological impact.
Climate Change
The evidence in support of anthropogenic climate change is unequivocal. The Earth’s
atmosphere is warming and human activity is a major cause. The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asserts that there is more than a 95% probability
that increases in temperature are primarily driven by human activities that raise the
concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (IPCC, 2007).
In Australia, food production is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2005, direct emissions from agriculture accounted for 16% of all Australian emissions.
Professor Ross Garnaut, the Australian economist commissioned by the Australian
Government to examine the impacts of climate change on Australia and recommend
policies to improve the situation, estimates that when indirect emissions from energy,
transport and waste are included, the contribution of the food system rises to at least
23%. Methane (a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) from ruminant
animals accounted for two thirds of these emissions or 11% of Australia’s total annual
greenhouse gas emissions (Garnaut, 2008). In contrast to this, it is estimated that direct
emissions from the vegetable industry account for about 0.7% of Australia’s total 1
(O'Halloran, Fisher, & Rab, 2008).
Primary Industries
Internationally, the livestock sector accounts for 9% of anthropogenic emissions of
carbon dioxide, mostly through land-use changes such as deforestation. Livestock
production is a key factor in deforestation, because woody vegetation is removed to
increase space for grazing and producing feed crops. The sector is by far the largest
anthropogenic user of land; 26% of the ice-free terrestrial surface of the planet is
occupied by grazing and 33% of all arable land is dedicated to feed crop production
(FAO, 2006). While land clearing has been regulated to some degree in recent years,
assisting Australia in meeting its Kyoto emission abatement targets (Hatfield-Dodds,
Carwardine, Dunlop, Graham, & Klein, 2007), the reforestation or revegetation of some
pastureland currently used for grazing would present further mitigation opportunities.
More information on the Australian meat and livestock industry is presented in Vignette 2.
Agricultural systems can also play an important role in sequestering atmospheric carbon.
Green plants remove carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and use it to
build biomass in the form of roots, stems and leaves. At the same time, plants release
carbon through vegetative respiration, combustion of wood as a fuel, consumption of
plants for food and natural decay. Trees, shrubbery and other plants with enduring
woody biomass are especially valuable, because they have the ability to retain much of
the carbon they sequester over several or many years (Kerckhoffs & Reid, 2007). Farms
that are managed to incorporate enduring woody biomass, are best suited to sequester
atmospheric carbon in this way.
1 Caution should be taken when comparing the data on different industries because great variation may exist
in underlying assumptions and components included in measurement.
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