Journal article

Publication year: 2009

Pages: 114-118

Journal: Fleischwirtschaft

Volume number: 89

Issue number: 9

ISSN: 0015-363X

Publisher: Deutscher Fachverlag GMBH

Abstract: 

Food of regional origin is usually considered to be eco-friendly because of its rather short transport distance to point of sale. However, in public opinion global food trade is said to be burdened with high energy use and carbon dioxide release. But, as a matter of fact, the specific energy use - calculated as kWh delivered energy per kg ready-to-cook food - is reciprocally depending on the size of process and transport units which are mainly used. German beef which is produced intensively on rather small farms causes high specific energy turnover (HARDTERT, 2008). Global beef from extensively operating big farms in Argentina which is shipped by regular container traffic shows rather less energy use and carbon dioxide release per kg of ready-to-cook beef (KRAUSE, 2008).

The data prove the central impact of farm management in Germany. The rather small transport distance between farm and market cannot compensate the high energetic efforts which are needed for breeding and fattening. On the other hand, global container transport by vessel and heavy truck requires a rather small deal of energy, which turns out to be much less than assumed by public opinion. In addition the researched data significantly demonstrate a digressive dependency of the energy use on the business size. The same findings are valid for carbon dioxide release and use of primary energy, if the results are related to I kg of ready-to-cook beef as functional unit. These results corroborate our theory of,Ecology of Scale" (SCHLICH, 2004; SCHLICH, 2005).

Harvard Citation style: Schlich, E., Hardtert, B. and Krause, F. (2009) Beef from the ecology of scale perspective, Fleischwirtschaft, 89(9), pp. 114-118

APA Citation style: Schlich, E., Hardtert, B., & Krause, F. (2009). Beef from the ecology of scale perspective. Fleischwirtschaft. 89(9), 114-118.