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3-23-05
HOW FAR DOES YOUR YOGURT TRAVEL?
The primary ingredients for an eight-ounce container of strawberry
yogurt travel more than 2,200 miles before reaching the supermarket
shelf, according to a study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable
Agriculture.
Rich Pirog, director of the center's Marketing and Food Systems
Initiative, and ISU student Andrew Benjamin calculated the weighted
total source distance (WTSD) for the milk, sugar and strawberries used
in a typical container of strawberry yogurt processed in Des Moines and
shipped to nearby food retailers. They found that the average distance
(based on percent weight in the final product) the ingredients travel is
about 277 miles, with a total travel distance of 2,216 miles.
For the study, Pirog and Benjamin sourced the milk from northeast Iowa,
the strawberries from California and Florida, and the sugar from beets
grown primarily in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota.
They did not factor in the origins of the plastic yogurt cup and lid,
foil cover, cardboard case, nor the active cultures and natural and
artificial flavors.
Previous Leopold Center projects have looked at "food miles" for fresh
fruit and vegetables. On average, they travel more than 1,500 miles
before they get to Iowa supermarkets. The current study is one of the
first to look at food miles for products with several ingredients.
In a new report, "Calculating food miles for a multiple ingredient food
product," Pirog and Benjamin outline their assumptions -- and provide
recommendations so that food professionals can compute food miles for
their own regions. The report is available online at
www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/files/foodmiles_030305.pdf. Other
research reports on food miles are available at the Leopold center web
site www.leopold.iastate.edu.
For more information, contact Pirog at (515) 294-1854, or rspirog@iastate.edu.
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