Transparent footprints

Just how accurate are the much-trumpeted new supermarket "carbon footprint" product labels? Not very, according to Seamus McCauley. Seamus makes a cogent argument that supermarkets are still deliberately fudging the "carbon transparency" issue.

Supermarkets are making noises at the moment about labelling food that's been flown in as such (Times), so people can make informed choices about the environmental impact of their purchases. The theory goes that food that's been flown in from abroad has a far greater carbon footprint than food produced in the UK.

The theory doesn't hold up. The time food spends on a plane contributes an absurdly tiny proportion of its carbon footprint - far less than 1%, says Tim Harford in the FT. Effectively all of the pollution occurs at the stage when it's carted around the UK on lorries or, more importantly, driven out of the supermarket in shoppers' cars. See if you're interested the original DEFRA report into the matter from 2005.

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So how might we persuade supermarkets to become truly transparent to the identity, carbon costs and all, of their products? This sounds like a good topic for the Identity Society to ponder... : )