Everyone tells me to “eat locally.” Why?

Help your local economy Local means fresher Know what you are eating: Pesticides? Genetically modified?

Free range? Save energy resources!

“A study in Iowa found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country.” (http://100milediet.org/why-eat-local/)

“Estimates on how long the average food travels from pasture to plate range from 1200 to 2500 miles. A lot of energy is expended freezing, refrigerating, and trucking that food around. Eating locally grown food means less fossil fuel burned in preparation and transport.” (http://www.newdream.org/consumer/farmersmarkets.php)

How much energy can I save by eating “locally”?

Sheep tag (ewe) for October 2007

What if I substituted my beef consumption with a locally harvested Dall sheep? Would this use less energy?

How do I compare energy consumption to harvest beef versus wild sheep?

Methodology Need to find

amount of energy consumedpound of meat harvested

= gallons of gas

lb of edible meat

Which numbers will be the most comparable for sheep versus beef?

What’s the BEEF? Beef: Internet figures vary. Some

include energy consumption figures for food, slaughter, processing, and packaging.

Sheep: No good way to calculate energy figures for processing and packaging a sheep, so…

The best figures for comparison will be those that calculate energy consumption in terms of “food consumed” and “slaughtering” only.

For a cow, we will ignore numbers that involve processing, shipping, etc.

For a sheep, this means I will calculate the gallons of gas needed to harvest the meat.

In other words:

Need to Find

How much gasoline is used to procure bullets, game bags, etc?

How much gasoline is used driving back and forth to the hunt(s)?

How many pounds of edible meat did we salvage? (Weighed after carving)

gallons of gaslb of meat

The The HuntHunt

Where Have Where Have All All

the Sheep the Sheep Gone?Gone?

Data Collection – SheepMiles

Miles/Gallon= Miles x Gallon

Miles= Gallons

Used

Description Miles (RT) MPG Gallons of Gas UsedBuying ammo 6.1 13.4 0.46Sighting in the rifle 33 14.4 2.29Buying game bags 6.1 13.3 0.46Borrowing a backpack 21.4 15.4 1.39Hunt #1 81.4 18.1 4.50Hunt #2 27.2 14 1.94

11.04

SHEEP HUNT

Total Gallons Used

Data Collection - Beef

0.0110.0120.2370.435

1AVG 0.339

Comparison (G/LB)

How much energy goes into raising a pound of beef?

Remember: use numbers that compare Sources say… Unclear if all of these are carcass weight or

edible meat

gallons of gas lb of meat

Beef? CHECK!

Sheep? Gallons of Gas But no meat!

No sheep! Now what? Call it quits??

Boo. Not after all this work. Find numbers to substitute??

Yay!! Check the internet for average carcass

weight of a Dall sheep Use this number to calculate what our

energy consumption per pound would have been, use to compare with beef statistics

The Alaska Fish and Game says…

The average “boned-out carcass weight” (all bones except ribs removed) of a Dall Sheep is between 40 and 80 pounds(http://wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=hunting.planning#during)

This number is an average for both sexes. Our tag was for a female, so I will use numbers on the smaller side.

= Gallons Gas Pound of Meat

gallons g/lb 0.01111.04 30 0.368 0.01211.04 35 0.315 0.23711.04 40 0.276 0.43511.04 45 0.245 111.04 50 0.221 AVG 0.339

Energy - Beef (g/lb)Energy - Sheeplbs of meat

What if? 30 pounds of sheep meat?

Energy savings: 0.339 – 0.368 = -0.029 g/lb OOPS!

40 pounds of sheep meat? Energy savings: 0.339 – 0.276 = 0.063 g/lb Or the same energy you would consume watching

20 hours of TV (http://www.dalefield.com/slspartners/hydrogen_stdu2.html)

50 pounds of sheep meat? Energy savings: 0.339 – 0.221 = 0.118 g/lb

So? That doesn’t sound like very much energy saved, Ms.

G. If the average American eats 30

pounds of hamburger/year, this could mean gasoline savings between 1.89 and 3.54 gallons per person (http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/restaurant_news.html)

If 50 people did it? Savings of 94.5 – 177 gallons

100? 189 – 354 gallons of gasoline saved!

So? That doesn’t sound like very much energy saved, Ms.

G. If the average American eats 69.5 pounds of

hamburger/year, this could mean gasoline savings between 4.38 and 8.20 gallons per person (http://www.newschannel8.com/Global/story.asp?S=863620&nav=menu29_2_3_3)

If 50 people did it? Savings of 219 – 410 gallons

100? 438 – 820 gallons of gasoline saved! Provided, of course, you get at least 40

pounds of meat!

The Verdict Is… Yes, you can help the environment by eating locally Bigger is better! Economies of scale Other Considerations:

Fun being outdoors, the “sport”, great exercise Beef statistics inexact – another way to find info? Could have consolidated trips to use less gasoline (ie, only one

trip to the store instead of two) Store trips used to purchase other goods, not just hunting

supplies Next time:

What if you went moose hunting? Numbers that include transportation – big savings for Alaskans! Price Factor??

Beef Energy Figures from: http://www.beeffrompasturetoplate.org/

mythmeatproductioniswasteful.aspx#Sixteen%20pounds%20of%20grain

http://www.ncga.com/research/pdfs/Energy_and_Oil_Consumption_in_Beef_Production.pdf

http://earthsave.org/environment/foodchoices.htm http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/beef.html http://sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/toolkit/

choosing.pdf http://www.vegansworldnetwork.org/

topic_environment_meat_eating.php

Image Sources http://www.culiblog.org/archives/DSC03630-HatCotWbanquet-'t

GroeneSpoorTL-culiblog-thumb.jpg http://www.greenlivingonline.com/HealthNutrition/eat-locally-act

-globally/ http://www.farmettereport.com/blog/2005/08/august_challeng.h

tml http://www.wilson.edu/wilson/uploadedimages/offices/academic

_affairs/fulton_ctr/greenhouse%20inside2.jpg http://www.naturalcollection.com/organic/greener-living-starts-

here.aspx http://livingindryden.org/images/home/eatLocal08052007B.jpg http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/images4/465eatlocal.gif http://digitalretrograde.com/Photos/cow.png http://www.pbase.com/tull777/image/84777374

Data Collection Sources http://www.foodgoods.com/images/eat_local_.jpg http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/ecotalkblog/images/eatlocallogo.jpg http://www.riverwood.cc/stir/pics/eatlocal.jpg http://www.missmalaprop.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/eatlocal.jpg http://gridskipper.com/assets/resources/2007/10/los-angeles-eat-local-main.jpg http://cioppino.blogs.com/hungrig_in_san_francisco/images/eat_local_2.gif http://www.foodshed.wisefoodways.com/img/eat_local.jpg http://fogcity.blogs.com/jen/

2005/08/10_reasons_to_e.html

Eat Locally, Think GloballyIt’s dinnertime. Do you know where your

food is...from?

Eat responsibly. Eat sustainably.