Confronting Climate Change: CARBON EMISSIONS AND THE FUTURE OF SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE By Anna Mouton
Global warming threatens South African agriculture as much by changing consumer behaviour as by changing climate. Growing awareness of the environmental impacts of agriculture is leading consumers to question how their food is produced and transported. Answering those questions have consequences for the future of our export industries.
And the pull from a South African perspective was to make sure that we were developing a pathway to reduce our emissions – to do the right thing.” Seed funding from the Department for International Development in the United Kingdom, along with support funding from the Post-Harvest Innovation Fund and the National Agricultural Marketing Council, kick-started the project. This was followed by substantial support from the Western Cape Department of Agriculture. The current partners in the project include the industry bodies for pome and stone fruit, citrus, table grapes and wine. Implementation is by sustainability consultancy Blue North.
For those in the persuit of the iconic
The push to quantify carbon emissions
The right tool for the job
A common perception among consumers is that so-called food miles – the distance between farm and fork – determine the contribution of a foodstuff to climate change. But distance is not everything, contends Hugh Campbell, General Manager of HortgroTechnical. Factors such as efficiency of production are among the many that also play a role. The South African fruit and wine industries recognised that maintaining market share would hinge on addressing consumer concerns. They combined forces and established the Confronting Climate Change Initiative in 2008. One of the main aims of the initiative was to develop a carbon calculator. “There was increasing pressure - a push - from the markets to know what our carbon footprint was”
The carbon footprint of a foodstuff is the sum of the greenhouse gases emitted in its production and transport. All the gases are converted to carbon-dioxide equivalents – CO2e. Sources of greenhouse gases in fruit production typically include electricity, fuel, agrochemicals and fertilisers. Sources in fruit packing include electricity, fuel and packaging. Working out a footprint starts with knowing the inputs – how much of each emission source was consumed. “Each of those in puts is multiplied by an emission factor,” explains Anél Blignaut, senior associate at Blue North. Emission factors relate the inputs to a quantity of carbon dioxide that is specific to that input. For example, container ships emit on average 0.02 kg of CO2 per cargo-tonne per km, compared to airfreight, which emits on average 0.53 kg of CO2 per cargo-tonne per km. The carbon- calculator tool guides users through the process of entering all their inputs, as well as their outputs – for example crop yields or tonnage packed. Blignaut emphasises the importance of basing the tool on international standards to ensure correct accounting for inputs.
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