Read the report,
Calculating food miles for a multiple ingredient food
product [PDF]
A new Leopold Center report shows that the
primary ingredients for an 8-ounce container of strawberry
yogurt travel more than 2,200 miles before reaching the
supermarket shelf.
Rich Pirog, program leader for 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 the 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 on-line at
www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/files/foodmiles_030305.pdf,
or contact the Leopold Center at (515) 294-3711, leocenter@iastate.edu,
to request a copy.
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