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> If you want to attack CO2 costs, the primary costs are in the last mile. If you want to attack CO2 costs, 90% of lamb's CO2 production occurs on the farm. On
by stevesimmons 8y ago
> If you want to attack CO2 costs, the primary costs are in the last mile.
If you want to attack CO2 costs, 90% of lamb's CO2 production occurs on the farm. Only 10% is from processing, distribution, retail, cooking, and waste disposal [1].
Let's charitably assume 1/3 of the post-farm CO2 emissions are from distribution and half of those could be saved by producing closer to the point of consumption.
So farm production only needs to be 1.8% (=(10/3/2)/90) more efficient in NZ for it to be net beneficial.
Presumably NZ is particularly efficient for lamb, otherwise it wouldn't be such a major export.
[1] To pick one reasonably creditble data source, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_production#cite_note-meat_eaters_guide-56 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_p...
which ends with this graph:
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/webcitation/419e58a77a34f10d258e827ef20e23c991d33480 https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/webcitation/419e58a77a34f...