VG08107 – Carbon Footprint part 5 – users

This Discussion Paper is concerned with – “Who will use the vegetable carbon tool ?”.

The question can only be properly answered after a better understanding of all the discussion papers is also available.

This is because there are many “levels” at which a carbon footprint can be measured.

Summary :

A Carbon Footprinting Workshop for the Vegetable industry was held late in 2008 where industry needs and future investment priorities for carbon footprinting were discussed. This paper was one of a series of six discussion papers that were commissioned by HAL, addressing key questions that were the focus of debate at the workshop.

Understanding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from production systems, including supply and demand chains, is becoming an important issue for agriculture and for the horticultural industry.

This is particularly the case as Government‟s concerns and actions in relation to climate change, including mitigation and emissions trading has significantly increased over the past 12 months.

This has subsequently increased the interest by the community on the impacts of GHG emissions from all sources, including agriculture.

It could therefore be expected that interest in the level of emissions from horticulture (and the vegetable industry), will increase.

The question, “Who will use the vegetable carbon tool?” will only be properly answered after a better understanding of all the discussion papers is also available.

This is because there are many “levels” at which a carbon footprint can be measured.

• At the national level, the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory is available, which provides an estimate of GHG emissions for Australian agriculture, but does not specifically estimate the GHG emissions from horticulture.
• At the farm level, there are no calculators available which can be used to estimate the carbon footprint of all horticultural activities which emit GHG within the boundaries of the production unit.

  Calculators have been produced which can estimate some of the GHG emissions from some sectors of agriculture.

• At the product level, there are a number of calculators being developed overseas to enable businesses to estimate the carbon footprint of an individual product.

Companies using this methodology can display a carbon label on products, providing consumers with additional information to use in purchase decisions.

• The supply and demand chain (including consumers), may not be convinced by the actual low levels of emissions, and they may perceive all horticulture as an intensive production system, to which is attributed the high level of GHG emissions which all of agriculture needs to address.
• An appropriate carbon footprint tool which calculates the GHG emissions of individual enterprises, and subsequently the whole of the vegetable industry, may go some way (or all of the way) to demonstrating :
  • the current low level of emissions produced by intensive horticulture enterprises
  • provide ongoing evidence of GHG reductions, as mitigation processes are adopted by individuals and industries.

Acknowledgments :

Funding was provided by Australian vegetable growers (through the R & D levy) and Horticulture Australia Limited. The Australian Government provides matched funding for all HAL’s R&D activities.