Earth Equity News

Environmental Costs of Shipping Groceries Around the World. By Elisabeth Rosenthal, NYTimes, April 26, 2008. "The European Union, the world's leading food importer, has increased imports 20 percent in the last five years. The value of fresh fruit and vegetables imported by the United States, in second place, nearly doubled from 2000 to 2006. Under a little-known international treaty called the Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed in Chicago in 1944 to help the fledgling airline industry, fuel for international travel and transport of goods, including food, is exempt from taxes, unlike trucks, cars and buses. There is also no tax on fuel used by ocean freighters. Proponents say ending these breaks could help ensure that producers and consumers pay the environmental cost of increasingly well-traveled food."