Fonterra Completes Carbon Study
June 2nd, 2009
Dairy giant Fonterra has completed an 18 month project which gives a first accurate picture of greenhouse gas emissions from its NZ operations. Among key findings are one litre of liquid milk produces 940 grams of C02; 85% of the emissions occur on the farm, 59% of which are methane and 24% nitrous oxide; manufacturing and processing accounts for another 10% of total emissions, and distribution accounts for another 5%. The more milk required for the product, the larger its carbon footprint.
The findings emphasise the importance for NZ of developing farming practices which make the greatest contribution possible to global climate change mitigation. The key objective of the Fonterra research is to support creation of a standard, globally recognised milk product carbon measurement both to create benchmarks for further reductions, and also as a weapon in any trade war seeking to impose costs on NZ agricultural products through unscientific concepts such as “food miles.”
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