KEY POINTS:
Talk of "food miles" in the wake of a major international report on climate change has sent a ripple of fear through New Zealand's vital export trade.
Any suggestion that taxes or tarriffs could be slapped on products that have travelled long distances to get to market is
bad news for a country whose economic lifeblood is trade.
The food miles issue hit the headlines this week after the release of the Stern report, an economic study into global warming by former World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern that was commissioned by the British Government.
While he warned of recession, wars, refugees, droughts, famine and rising sea levels if nothing was done to combat global warming, it was the humble kiwifruit that hit the headlines here after a British politician raised the issue of food miles and calculated that flying 1kg of the fruit from New Zealand to Europe caused 5kg of carbon to be discharged into the atmosphere.
Despite the fact kiwifruit is shipped to Britain, and its "carbon footprint" is therefore much less than if it was sent by air, the debate reached the boardrooms and growing fields of New Zealand's exporters.
"We can't move the country any closer to markets," said Lyall Fields, managing director of fresh-cut flower exporter FlowerZone International.
"We have a product that's perishable, there are zero other ways to get it to market except by air."
While he describes the fresh flower business as a "minnow in the ocean" in comparison to dairy exporter Fonterra, it is worth up to $50 million a year in export earnings.
"No doubt we will be dragged into this debate but it's the dairy boys who have been targeted to date," he said.
Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton had already moved to protect Fonterra, re-releasing a Lincoln University study during the furore over the Stern report that showed New Zealand meat and butter exported to Britain had a quarter to half the "carbon footprint" of the same food produced locally.
Fonterra general manager of trade strategy, Fiona Cooper Clarke, called food miles a "ridiculous concept". "Food miles is a concept dreamt up by marketers and latched on to by food producers fearful of competition,"she said.
Strawberry grower John Greensmith said: "All our strawberries are air-freighted, so it would have a disastrous effect on us. The issue seems to have just started appearing in overseas publications in Europe, it's just starting to rear its head."
Air New Zealand is one company tackling its emissions problem and it has a big problem - 3.6 million tonnes of CO2 this financial year with 92 per cent of it from the use of jet fuel (one tonne of CO2 would fill a two-storey, three-bedroom house).
For the past three years the company has worked with science institute Landcare Research to develop software to monitor its CO2 emissions footprint and to work out the estimated carbon footprint of its operation per passenger kilometre.
The airline can show, it says, that the long-haul fleet has reduced fuel burn, and therefore CO2 emissions, per passenger kilometre by an average 2 per cent a year.
A 777 is being introduced and the 787 will see further improvements in fuel efficiency.
"A 787 replacing a 747 will reduce absolute fuel burn by 48 per cent per anum," spokesman Mike Tod said. "However, the 787 will carry fewer passengers so on a per passenger kilometre basis we hope to achieve at least a 12 per cent fuel burn reduction."
The company is also investigating ways its customers can contribute to schemes that off-set carbon emissions.
The author of the Lincoln report on comparative carbon emissions from New Zealand food and locally grown UK produce, Caroline Saunders, said New Zealand had no choice but to protect its clean, pure image.
"If we want to get to those premium markets we are going to have to be whiter than white."
What are food miles?
* Food miles are how far food travels to get to the plate.
* Whether transported by road or air, the travel contributes to the carbon dioxide which goes into the atmosphere, causing global warming.
* Sending food by air is more environmentally damaging because of the huge emissions from aircraft.
