What's the carbon footprint of a packet of crisps?

[SilliamWhale]

Looking at the whole picture from the frying to the supermarket storage space to the nutrients provided the footprint of a bag of fresh air with some salt and a few slices of potato must be massive.

Why is there no focus on the carbon footprint of all these non proper food processed food? Surely it's more than when farms produce the raw material?

 

[4course]

Looking at the whole picture from the frying to the supermarket storage space to the nutrients provided the footprint of a bag of fresh air with some salt and a few slices of potato must be massive.

Why is there no focus on the carbon footprint of all these non proper food processed food? Surely it's more than when farms produce the raw material?

thing is though youve not scratched the surface of the discussion !!that bag of crisps is possibly £1.50 and you /we/they havnt taken into account the consumers carbon footprint in getting to the point of paying £1.50 cash for a bag of crisps out of his earnings before/after tax etc .As oft been said its all ba------s.

 

[DaveGrohl]

Looking at the whole picture from the frying to the supermarket storage space to the nutrients provided the footprint of a bag of fresh air with some salt and a few slices of potato must be massive.

Why is there no focus on the carbon footprint of all these non proper food processed food? Surely it's more than when farms produce the raw material?

Don’t forget all the sunflower oil in that bag. Couple of years ago my lad arrived back here with a bag of monkey crisps from a party. Upon readings the ingredients, sunflower oil was the main ingredient

 

[Welderloon]

Shhhhhhhhh................

Crisps are food, food comes from supermarkets, supermarkets are carbon neutral because of farmers..................

Now run along & stop being disruptive.

 

[Bury the Trash]

no idea but they are yummy scrummy...

 

[4course]

Shhhhhhhhh................

Crisps are food, food comes from supermarkets, supermarkets are carbon neutral because of farmers..................

Now run along & stop being disruptive.

apparently the packet of crisps is subject to a vat inclusive price

 

[melted welly]

Looking at the whole picture from the frying to the supermarket storage space to the nutrients provided the footprint of a bag of fresh air with some salt and a few slices of potato must be massive.

Why is there no focus on the carbon footprint of all these non proper food processed food? Surely it's more than when farms produce the raw material?

Once GFC is up and running, the conversation will be allowed, but centring around how whole chain emissions are offset through the supply chain by “working closely with producers”.

Inconvenient truth is only one part of the chain sequesters and if that was taken into account, a significant amount of growers are carbon neutral or positive without changing anything.

But that sequestered by growing crops isn’t counted because that doesn’t fit and spoils the story.

 

[milkloss]

thing is though youve not scratched the surface of the discussion !!that bag of crisps is possibly £1.50 and you /we/they havnt taken into account the consumers carbon footprint in getting to the point of paying £1.50 cash for a bag of crisps out of his earnings before/after tax etc .As oft been said its all ba------s.

All that imported sunflower oil is probably carbon negative via some creative bookwork.
This is quite handy because it would help negate all the damage from the massive carbon footprint of British grown potatoes.

 

[SilliamWhale]

All that imported sunflower oil is probably carbon negative via some creative bookwork.
This is quite handy because it would help negate all the damage from the massive carbon footprint of British grown potatoes.

Or because it's imported it's othered and just doesn't matter.

Are all the other countries of the world queueing up to join our net zero 2040 quest by the way?

 

[M-J-G]

A bit more carbon in the atmosphere won't matter, its pretty low anyway, running out of energy without many sensible alternatives is more of a concern IMO.

 

[delilah]

I would imagine that like so many foodstuffs it's all in the transport. Artic load of crisps is going to be 90% air by volume.

There is a reason that the word 'transport' doesn't appear in any of the WWF basket case literature. It is the cartel's dirty little secret.

 

[delilah]

Where the profit ends up from a bag of Walkers crisps:

https://www.wikicorporates.org/wiki/PepsiCo_Inc

It is why the little people are having to pay ever more tax; to make up for the fact that global corporations pay ever less. To get our MP's to understand the importance of re-localizing our food system we need to talk to them in the only language they understand.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

It's basically a bag of fresh wind, but it will still have a better C footprint than a football match.
Imagine the footprint of a whole stadium full of people eating crisps and drinking beer, no wonder we have summers

 

[yellowbelly]

To get our MP's to understand the importance of re-localizing our food system we need to talk to them in the only language they understand

I assume that's by not voting for them?

Trouble with that is, some other bunch get voted in, for 5 years, and carry on with the status quo, so nothing changes

 

[yellowbelly]

It's basically a bag of fresh wind, but it will still have a better C footprint than a football match.
Imagine the footprint of a whole stadium full of people eating crisps and drinking beer, no wonder we have summers

Yeah, and producers of basic life sustaining food, like you and me, get vilified 'cos our livestock belch a bit of methane.

The world's gone mad.

 

[delilah]

I assume that's by not voting for them?

Trouble with that is, some other bunch get voted in, for 5 years, and carry on with the status quo, so nothing changes

Money. That is the only language they understand. We must talk to them about the taxation revenue earned from a localized food system as opposed to a globalized one. And the multiplier effect; a pound spent on a locally baked loaf of bread creates far more than a pounds worth of economic activity in the local area. And the financial savings in not having to maintain an infrastructure to haul an egg a thousand miles. And the savings on public health and pollution; freight is 2% of road traffic yet generates 22% of emissions.

 

[DaveGrohl]

Once GFC is up and running, the conversation will be allowed, but centring around how whole chain emissions are offset through the supply chain by “working closely with producers”.

Inconvenient truth is only one part of the chain sequesters and if that was taken into account, a significant amount of growers are carbon neutral or positive without changing anything.

But that sequestered by growing crops isn’t counted because that doesn’t fit and spoils the story.

We don’t really sequester carbon much as an industry though, but we do absorb CO2 out of the atmosphere every single day, only for others to release it again. Currently we get zero credit for this. Add that back in and huge areas of farming are nut zero.

 

[delilah]

huge areas of farming are nut zero.

That the direct drillers then ?

 

[BuskhillFarm]

Looking at the whole picture from the frying to the supermarket storage space to the nutrients provided the footprint of a bag of fresh air with some salt and a few slices of potato must be massive.

Why is there no focus on the carbon footprint of all these non proper food processed food? Surely it's more than when farms produce the raw material?

Why no carbon editing on the fact that the top 15 of the worlds cruise ships pollute more than all the worlds cars combined? They’ll hardly worry about a bag of walkers air and “crisps”

 

[melted welly]

We don’t really sequester carbon much as an industry though, but we do absorb CO2 out of the atmosphere every single day, only for others to release it again. Currently we get zero credit for this. Add that back in and huge areas of farming are nut zero.

I’d disagree to an extent.

The dictionary definition of sequestration is

“a natural or artificial process by which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form”. (Oxford languages).

Which is what happens with all growing crops. There’s no mention of timescale. That appears to be manipulated to leave agriculture responsible for inputs and outputs.

We are not consumers of our own produce, we do not release what we sequester. We are responsible for what we consume, be it fert, chems, fuel, medicines, steel. We should therefore not be responsible for what others consume.

I think the semantics around this are similar to the spin encountered around methane emissions and the methane cycle. The message needs to be clear and simple, growing crops sequester CO2, be that grass, cereals, trees…... end of.

Simple, simple concept for layman on the street to understand and true.