Building a Smarter Planet. A Smarter Planet Blog.

There are so many pages looking similarily on the Internet, however solely yours includes what I was looking for. I’ll be checking it often! I add it to my bookmarks!

Posted by: Portale Opole

Yep i agree, the video seems a bit un professional otherwise it is conveying its message.

Posted by: Refrigerated Trucking

I like the thought… don’t like the video. It’s a bit lame. Maybe not geared towards European viewers. ;)

Posted by: Bas - Serial Expat

buying local is great if you have tons of money, if you’re a normal human being then you have to worry about things like feeding you’re family and i don’t think paying more money on local or organic foods than the amount one would pay for house payments is a realistic way to go about things.

Posted by: Squeeto

This is an issue which warrants merit on its own basis, so I have to ask why you want to throw in a buzz phrase like “carbon footprint.”
For the intelligent people who understand that this would be such a preposterously small addition to anthropogenic CO2 emissions which are already preposterously small and of no effect on the environment, it gives us a reason to not care about what you’re trying to do.
Why can’t you champion for a better earth because it is more economical, not because it decreases some penumbral eco-terrorist footprint.

Posted by: Michael Brandow

“then what you are doing on this web page is just pissing into the wind”
not really, the fact that lots of food moved all over has more chance to spoil is a big waste of food. local exchange is the way to go.

Posted by: Br0wnb3rry

As a truck driver I can tell you that the video is so far off into left field that it is baseless. Spoilage on my truck has never been more than 5% per load in 15 years. We haul your food in refrigerated tractor trailer combos. If the truck breaks down the refrigerator doesn’t quit. If the reefer quits while we are driving the lights on the drivers side of the trailer alerts us so we carry it to the nearest shop for repairs or cold storage until repairs are made. Produce temps are precise for the commodity to keep it fresh. Meat is frozen to -20f for shipping. Even when a reefer breaks down the product isn’t going to wilt or defrost right away. Our trailer walls are thick and specially insulated to keep the heat out and the cold in for sustained periods of time.
The stores buy from a buyer. The buyer buys from the farmer. The trucker hauls what the buyer ships. The types of produce are ordered depends of what the store wants. ie Washington Apples, Florida Oranges. If you want to reduce the carbon foot print for the loads that we haul then buy local and convince your neighbors to do the same. I buy from the farmers market when it’s practical to support my local farmers. If you really want to reduce the carbon foot print of the loads that we haul across the country then design a more fuel efficient engine that can handle pulling an 80,000lb truck and trailer for 11 hours per day. Until we get alternative fuel sources or electric motors that rival fossil fuel motors then our carbon output will only go down by the measure of new emission requirements that we are already facing. In the past few years truck engine emissions have been reduced by cleaner engines and exhaust requirements as well as new Ultra Low Sulfer Fuels. The next few years will see more changes in emission requirements per the EPA.
Until we have trucks that have zero emissions then what you are doing on this web page is just pissing into the wind.

Posted by: Keith

Buy local. It’s the best way to start.

Posted by: Jim

I’m a bit reluctant to buy into the entire “carbon footprint” idea but there does need to be some serious work when it comes to innovation and reduction of waste. That doesn’t even make any sense.
But how do you actually *change* this?

Posted by: Junior

The best way to reduce the carbon footprint of your food is to eat locally. If you want to start eating foods grown in your area, a great place to start is the Eat Well Guide (www.eatwellguide.org) It’s a huge online directory of local food listings across the country – all you have to do is enter in your zip code and it spits out stores and restaurants that provide food grown locally, as well as farms, farmers markets, and CSAs in your area. Why buy produce from Australia or California when the same produce is being grown in your neighborhood?

Posted by: Lewis

Anyone who trusts Mars and IBM to “improve the cocoa gene” for the benefit of the cocoa plant and anyone who eats it, should read “Seeds of Deception” by Jeff M. Smith, published 2003 and still relevant. The cocoa plant has been evolving for thousands of years…to change it under the guise of “protecting” the natural genome is kidding ourselves. Don’t fall for Mars Corp/IBM salestalk. They’re doing it to make thousands of bucks, and thats their first and last priority.

Posted by: Susan S., McLean, Va.

Susan -
re: your point about the print ad in today’s papers [http://tinyurl.com/5ol57p], I indeed believe that IBM really does care “to promote the foundation and smart growth of local food economies.” Here are just a few examples of what IBM is doing:
- studying the cocoa genome in an effort to help more than 6.5 million farmers create stronger crops that might even resist droughts. This would be an especially important feature in Africa, where 70 percent of the world’s cocoa is produced.
- working with Nortura, Norway’s largest food supplier, to track and trace poultry and meat products from the farm to supermarket shelves, detecting whether their products encounter any adverse conditions in the supply chain.
- developing stronger strains of rice that could produce crops with larger and more nutritious yields, largely through donated computer power via the World Community Grid.
Thanks for your comment.

Posted by: Tim Washer

Susan: Not sure I follow your point. This blog exists so that people will feel free to share their points of view in regard to possible solutions to these systematic challenges. I feel this comment space represents an opportunity for anyone to engage in fair discussion.
I do trust IBM’s approach here, I am concerned about where my food comes from, why it travels so far, the carbon footprint it leaves behind, and so many other things.
Adam tells a great story about being a child and occasionally travelling through the vast avocado farms in southern california. He would wonder what they tasted like, and wonder where he could buy them, because they were never being offered for sale in his local grocery stores. His local stores sold imported avocados. What can we do to start to change situations like this back around?

Posted by: george faulkner

Attention: Adam Christensen, George Faulkner and Tim Washer, members of IBM Communications with a “variety of professional backgrounds”… Why don’t you prevail on IBM mgmt. to promote fair policy in both their web and print advertising? See the back page ad that appeared in the Wash. Post, the NY Times and other major metro papers on Dec 8, 2008…series 4, on “setting the global table”.
The print ad promotes solely IBM global business policy; the website promotes a democratic discussion approach to global food policy…one can tell by comparing the two approaches that IBM doesn’t really care to promote the foundation and smart growth of local food economies…
Are you three afraid of being fired by IBM by not promoting fair discussion? So print readers are stupid and web readers are smart? Do you really trust IBM’s approach to “putting healthy meals on your tables” by relying on the global food chain? (See the print ad’s last para…)

Posted by: Susan S., McLean, Va, USA