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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

That kiwifruit business 

We all know the story:
The report, by former World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern and commissioned by the British Government, cited the kiwifruit trade as a contributor to environmental damage.

It estimated that flying 1kg of kiwifruit from New Zealand to Europe causes 5kg of carbon to be discharged into the atmosphere.

Err, no. As far as I can tell, from downloading all 6 parts of the Stern Report, it makes no mention of kiwifruit at all. A search for "kiwifruit" yielded nothing, and even a search for just "fruit" yielded bugger all, excepting a reference on p266 in Part III.

As far as I can ascertain, the whole kiwifruit business was started by the the Observer , which was the source for my original comment below.

Not to say of course that the Prime Minister and various Cabinet luminaries were wrong to leap the defence of our "super efficient agricultural sector"(TM) . Y'know, the same one that dumps shit into practically every waterway in the country.

Long story short, the infamous "5kg of C02 for 1 kg of air-freighted kiwifruit" doesn't appear to be in the Stern Report at all. Feel free to correct me if I missed it.

Comments:
nice work dc, of course accounting for the laxative affects of kiwifruit, any measured discharges might be much higher than 5kg
 
If we could get sheep to shit kiwifruit we could be in business.
 
You have to wonder why anyone would airfreight kiwifruit in the first place.
 
Yesterday, while dying from strange ass-shattering fever, I went looking for fruit and medicines here in Quito. Lo and behold I found mandarians from the Coast, apples from Chile and Kiwi fruit from Peru!!

Peruvian Kiwi fruit in Ecuador. Turns out they are also trying to grow the Kiwi fruit in the States as well.

Again, helping to shatter the Kiwi fruit climate change myth.
 

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