New Zealand Lamb?

[Tigerhair]

Did anyone catch woman's hour on R4 this morning? The NZ PM was on and made a comment that she's upset that UK are not buying as much NZ Lamb because of the "air miles" - she says it uses more energy producing lamb in this country than buying it from there.... do they boat it or fly it?? How does she work that one out?

[Magpie]

I have heard that from this end too... I think it's more to do with the intensive farming over there, having to feed out winter stock etc. Here, the sheep are on pasture year-round... although the pasture has to be fertilised more. I don't know - I have no opinion on this one, don't know enough of the facts. I would still be inclined to buy local. (Especially as that means buying yummy NZ lamb!!)

[red]

I believe it comes over frozen in big containers by ship

new zealand butter comes over in huge container sized blocks - again frozen, and is cut when it gets here

I would not buy either as i live on the other side of the world.!

I think its fair to say that the NZ method is more free range, but equally that means there are more deaths as the animals are left to their own devices (bit like moorland animals here. wait a minute.. thought we did intensive...)

[Stonehead]

NZ lamb generally comes into the UK via ship.

But NZ less intensive? Well, there are sheep all around us here in Scotland and they are all out on pasture year-round with the exception of lambing. Same with the Borders farm we bought our boar from.

[Boots]

It's prolly the shagging rumours that are affecting sales.

Yep.

[the.fee.fairy]

mmm...lamb with extra flavouring...

...sorry...

[Wombat]

[Martin]

where men are men...............and the sheep look very worried!

[Kiwi]

It's prolly the shagging rumours that are affecting sales. Yep.

where men are men...............and the sheep look very worried!

[paddy]

On a serious point i think you are about to see a carbon tax applied to everything that's imported into the EU regarding the distance the product has travelled.

Far away producers like OZ and NZ i think will be hit very hard as when the EU introduces such a tax i think other countries will to offset their products.

This should give home grown produce a big boost as it should be a lot cheaper than imported food.

[Jack]

Gidday

Well I am all in favour of ewe jokers buyinhg more produce from here but, I does make sense to me for ewe to buy your own first. As I understand it, ewe don't produce enough food for yourselves and that is why ewe import.

[Bonniegirl]

This is a cut & paste from another forum discussing the same issues:

"This is a paper on the subject of "Food Miles - Comparitive Energy/Emmissions Performance of New Zealand's Agriculture Industry", which shows that even with transport added in, the foods they studied (dairy, apples, onions and lamb) from New Zealand still has a smaller "carbon footprint", i.e., the energy used to produce and deliver it to the market is less than most similar products grown in the UK and Europe."

http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/story_images/2 ... _s6508.pdf




Good luck!!

[red]

I have heard this before - but I just don't believe it. when I have more time I will go through the research... and I bet i find some interesting maths.
but seriously.. lamb.... here in Devon Uk it is not raised intensively.. sheep live in fields.. they go to slaughter then the butchers... my local butchers - which is in the same street as me - sells lamb from this and surrounding villages. how could that possibly result in a larger carbon footprint than lamb frozen and transported from the other side of the world?
a quick scan of the research - and I did come up with this, referring to reseach on uk figures

However, as typically it is
the lowland farms where sheep are finished for meat, this is used as the system in the current
report.

which is hilarious. most sheep are raised on lowland farms? so ehh Dartmoor.. and all those welsh hills (and remember Wales is famous for its lamb) don't count then.

on calculating fuel costs

Fuel, Electricity and Oil
Nix (2004) allocates £35 per hectare for the fuel, electricity and oil expenses incurred in a
predominantly sheep/cattle, lowland operation. However a further breakdown of this into its
three components is not available, therefore a diesel equivalent total (which represents the
components) will be derived, based on the price of diesel used in the dairy section above
(24p).
The diesel equivalent of this fuel, electricity and oil cost is calculated by dividing the total
cost per hectare by the price of diesel per hectare:

just looks a tad dodgy to me.
the figures look a bit 'we found some figures given as guidance on the wrong kind of farm, and not all the calculations were available so we picked something' and
my parents keep sheep. the only fuel costs are taking them to slaughter.. locally, once a year.

then the research goes on to calculate fertilizer etc used on lowland farms etc. yup - thats right we fertilize all that moorland....not...

and then looking briefly at the table at the end, it turns out that farm buildings in the uk use 6 times more co2 than those in NZ - how? - course part of the research assumes farm buildings only last 20 years... strange cos i have some that are 200 years old.. but to be fair the newer one is only 50...!

the word that springs to mind is propaganda.

[Muddypause]

I haven't done more than skim thjrough that report, and wouldn't claim any expertise upon what I'm reading, but it does seem to be more of a marketing statement rather than scientific research - something the press can easily hook onto and quote from without having to look any further.

For example, the implication seems to be that dairy produce imported from NZ will have a lower carbon footprint than that produced locally; this seems largely down to the winter feedstuff and bedding used in the UK, presumably for herds overwintered in sheds.

Apples, it seems, are better imported all the way from NZ because those produced locally spend 6 months in cold storage.

Onions, on the other hand, don't seem to make much difference either way.

It does seem extraordinary to think that an apple picked in an orchard twelve miles away should have a larger carbon footprint than one flown in from twelve thousand miles away. I think most people would take a fair bit of convincing about that.

[Kiwi]

I have heard this before - but I just don't believe it. when I have more time I will go through the research... and I bet i find some interesting maths.
but seriously.. lamb.... here in Devon Uk it is not raised intensively.. sheep live in fields.. they go to slaughter then the butchers... my local butchers - which is in the same street as me - sells lamb from this and surrounding villages. how could that possibly result in a larger carbon footprint than lamb frozen and transported from the other side of the world?
a quick scan of the research - and I did come up with this, referring to reseach on uk figures

However, as typically it is
the lowland farms where sheep are finished for meat, this is used as the system in the current
report.

which is hilarious. most sheep are raised on lowland farms? so ehh Dartmoor.. and all those welsh hills (and remember Wales is famous for its lamb) don't count then.

on calculating fuel costs

Fuel, Electricity and Oil
Nix (2004) allocates £35 per hectare for the fuel, electricity and oil expenses incurred in a
predominantly sheep/cattle, lowland operation. However a further breakdown of this into its
three components is not available, therefore a diesel equivalent total (which represents the
components) will be derived, based on the price of diesel used in the dairy section above
(24p).
The diesel equivalent of this fuel, electricity and oil cost is calculated by dividing the total
cost per hectare by the price of diesel per hectare:

just looks a tad dodgy to me.
the figures look a bit 'we found some figures given as guidance on the wrong kind of farm, and not all the calculations were available so we picked something' and
my parents keep sheep. the only fuel costs are taking them to slaughter.. locally, once a year.

then the research goes on to calculate fertilizer etc used on lowland farms etc. yup - thats right we fertilize all that moorland....not...

and then looking briefly at the table at the end, it turns out that farm buildings in the uk use 6 times more co2 than those in NZ - how? - course part of the research assumes farm buildings only last 20 years... strange cos i have some that are 200 years old.. but to be fair the newer one is only 50...!

the word that springs to mind is propaganda.

Have to agree with you Red... They seem to be bundling it up in a big scary monster bag of "global warming", so they can justify anything....

....and don't get me started about the rumours either... , shagging sheep went out when Joh Bjielte Peterson moved to Australia..... and took the practice with him, it was subsequently stolen like the pavlova and Phar lap by our Aussie cousins.. ay Wombat... you know I'm right ..hahahaha

Of course buying NZ lamb is best... because it tastes better
well I had to put my 2 cents worth in....