Comments on: Local-ness http://geadventure.com/2009/04/guaranteed-local/ Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:47:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Benjamin Palmer http://geadventure.com/2009/04/guaranteed-local/comment-page-1/#comment-103 Benjamin Palmer Fri, 01 May 2009 22:34:31 +0000 http://geadventure.com/?p=110#comment-103 You know, I thought it was initially a poor choice of words, but I will stand by it: I don't think end users care about EFFICIENCY. Yes people care about carbon footprint, or dolphin-safe, or a wide variety of things that are new societal concerns, but those things are causes or concerns that are in many cases a tangent to what most companies are attempting to do (they are in the business of selling you tuna, not in the business of not selling you dolphins, ha). What every business does care about is efficiency though, right? Penny pinching. And some of the things you outline are individual components of efficiency in terms of producing a product, and you're totally right, I was minimizing the passion of the audience, but I think with the idea that most business are in fact striving to make things more efficient, and are probably doing all sorts of stuff that people don't know about, that is a greener decision made not with the environment in mind but with a faster truck route in mind. Ok so what are big general categories though? your examples are good, and food-prints is nice. something simple what about a calorie measure - like how many calories is in a food, vs. how many calories it took to get it to you ? You know, I thought it was initially a poor choice of words, but I will stand by it: I don’t think end users care about EFFICIENCY. Yes people care about carbon footprint, or dolphin-safe, or a wide variety of things that are new societal concerns, but those things are causes or concerns that are in many cases a tangent to what most companies are attempting to do (they are in the business of selling you tuna, not in the business of not selling you dolphins, ha).

What every business does care about is efficiency though, right? Penny pinching. And some of the things you outline are individual components of efficiency in terms of producing a product, and you’re totally right, I was minimizing the passion of the audience, but I think with the idea that most business are in fact striving to make things more efficient, and are probably doing all sorts of stuff that people don’t know about, that is a greener decision made not with the environment in mind but with a faster truck route in mind.

Ok so what are big general categories though? your examples are good, and food-prints is nice. something simple

what about a calorie measure – like how many calories is in a food, vs. how many calories it took to get it to you ?

]]> By: stephanie gerson http://geadventure.com/2009/04/guaranteed-local/comment-page-1/#comment-101 stephanie gerson Fri, 01 May 2009 19:45:18 +0000 http://geadventure.com/?p=110#comment-101 "But its strangely not ever important to the end user to know how efficiently a product was made." ? many end users definitely find this important. it's the impetus behind the [large and ever-growing] movement to label foods according to sustainability-oriented critera, from organic to dolphin-safe to post-consumer recycled and other degrees of recyclability. "There’s all sorts of ways to go with this, but a simple first idea is to have a consistent iconic stamp of local-ness, or maybe in the same way that you have nutritional information on a package you have distance traveled." attempts at food-prints (food-print, get it?) are definitely being made, but local-ness is not as straightforward as might be initially imagined. oftentimes there are many components that go into a product (different parts/ingredients, packaging, etc.) that may come from different places. should local-ness equal cumulative miles traveled of all the components of a product? there are also different trips components make - from farm to processor, processor to packager, packager to distributor, etc. should all of those trips be included? also, should fossil fuel miles count the same as hybrid/biodiesel/more renewably fueled miles? I'm not suggesting that a label for local-ness isn't doable - it's definitely doable and of course valuable - just that the ball is indeed rolling, and as with any attempt at standardization, there are wrinkles to be ironed out.... “But its strangely not ever important to the end user to know how efficiently a product was made.”

? many end users definitely find this important. it’s the impetus behind the [large and ever-growing] movement to label foods according to sustainability-oriented critera, from organic to dolphin-safe to post-consumer recycled and other degrees of recyclability.

“There’s all sorts of ways to go with this, but a simple first idea is to have a consistent iconic stamp of local-ness, or maybe in the same way that you have nutritional information on a package you have distance traveled.”

attempts at food-prints (food-print, get it?) are definitely being made, but local-ness is not as straightforward as might be initially imagined. oftentimes there are many components that go into a product (different parts/ingredients, packaging, etc.) that may come from different places. should local-ness equal cumulative miles traveled of all the components of a product? there are also different trips components make – from farm to processor, processor to packager, packager to distributor, etc. should all of those trips be included? also, should fossil fuel miles count the same as hybrid/biodiesel/more renewably fueled miles? I’m not suggesting that a label for local-ness isn’t doable – it’s definitely doable and of course valuable – just that the ball is indeed rolling, and as with any attempt at standardization, there are wrinkles to be ironed out….

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