The Ecology of Scale: Assessment of Regional Energy Turnover and Comparison with Global Food (5 pp)
The Ecology of Scale: Assessment of Regional Energy Turnover and Comparison with Global Food (5 pp)
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规模生态：区域能源周转率评估以及与全球粮食的比较（5 页）
DOI：
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发表时间：
2005
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Ulla Fleissner
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
E. Schlich;Ulla Fleissner
目标、范围和背景显然，人们认为，与全球粮食运输相比，粮食的区域生产和分配需要较少的能源周转。政治家们声称“区域性”一词，认为区域性是防止浪费这么多能源进行全球粮食分配的一剂良药。此外，能源周转造成污染。但值得注意的是，缺乏经验数据来支持这一观点。与此同时，没有人真正要求非食品类商品的原产地，例如自行车、洗碗机、家具或汽车等。因此，本文提出的第一个科学问题是如何测量可比食物的能量周转，关于食物的整个生命周期。这意味着要调查作物或品种的部分系统，食品生产，包装，包括运输和分销，直到销售点。第二，必须检查是否可以核实假设的低能量周转和区域起源的一致性。通过比较不同食品的区域和全球加工链，研究了以食物单位[kWh/kg]或[kWh/l]计算的比能量周转。通过实地考察，以果汁和羊肉两种食品为例进行了研究。首先，从能量方面比较了巴西、欧洲和德国当地农民的高品质果汁。其次，对新西兰羔羊肉和德国当地农民的羔羊肉进行了比较。羊肉已经被调查，因为它是作为冷冻天然食品运往世界各地，而不是像果汁那样浓缩。此外，食品生产商的业务规模进行了研究的两个例子。方法作为生命周期评价的一部分，对从开始到销售的各个工序的能量周转进行研究。这些初步的结果是基本的经验数据，以分配的能量周转在食品作为功能单元。区域，欧洲大陆和全球过程链的结果进行了比较。此外，这个问题进行了调查，是否特定的能源营业额取决于业务规模。结果和讨论令人惊讶的是，在这两种情况下的数据表明，一个强大的递减关系的比能量营业额和企业规模。在这里，这并不重要，如果业务是区域性的或没有。仅仅是生产和运营的效率和物流就决定了具体的能源周转。这些发现似乎与企业规模密切相关，因为小公司无法投资于能源回收和节能技术。由于大量的小型作物运输和几乎瓶装的分销，区域果汁业务变得更加恶化。关于羊肉，我们再次发现小农场的缺点。此外，德国农民每天需要牧羊人，夜间需要围栏，冬季需要马厩和额外的饲料。所有这些努力在新西兰是不必要的，那里的气候条件和开放的农村人口少，允许相当容易和低能量的羔羊养殖。结论经济因素与生态因素具有明显的一致性。事实上，在经济学中，生产成本与产品数量之间存在着强烈的递减关系。这种关系被称为“规模经济”。我们的研究结果在生态学方面得出了类似的结论。这意味着，生产生态取决于生产的物品数量。此外，我们的研究结果证明了最小的业务规模，因此我们也可以声称“规模生态”。然而，另一方面，报告的数据和结论仅适用于所调查的食品果汁和羊肉。尽管如此，一个结论已经很明显：最流行的主张是区域粮食生产和分配，而不是全球加工链，这通常是站不住脚的。与大型单位相比，小农户基本上需要更多的能源来生产和销售他们的产品。这两种食品都清楚地表明，生态质量主要受运营效率的影响，而不是营销距离本身。建议和展望所有被调查的经营单位，加工果汁和羊肉，更详细的数据已经公布（Fleissner 2001）。作为另一个例子，我们调查了来自不同国家的葡萄酒作为另一个例子。与果汁不同，果汁可以作为浓缩液运输，羊肉可以作为冷冻食品运输，高品质的葡萄酒总是在靠近原产地的地方装瓶。这意味着，不仅是食品，而且还有重型包装在世界各地运输。因此，我们对2004年的预期结果非常好奇。
Goal, Scope and Background Obviously, people assume that the regional production and distribution of food requires less energy turnover, compared with global transports of food. Politicians claim the term “regionality”, maintaining that regionality is a medicine against wasting so much energy for the global food distribution. Additionally the energy turnover is causing pollution. But remarkably, there is a lack of empirical data to support this idea. At the same time, nobody really requires regional origin for non-food items, e.g. for bicycles, dishwashers, furniture or cars etc. The public mainstream asks for regional origin merely for food. Hence, the first scientific issue worked out in this paper is how the energy turnover of comparable food items can be measured, regarding the lifecycle of food in total. That means to investigate the partial systems of crop or breed, of food production, of packaging including transport and distribution up to the point of sale. Secondly, it has to be checked, if the assumed coincidence of low energy turnover and regional origin can be verified. The specific energy turnover, calculated in the unit [kWh per kg] or [kWh per l] of food, is investigated by comparing regional with global process chains for different food items. Two examples of food fruit juices and lamb meat are researched, by personal investigation worldwide. Firstly, fruit juices of high grade quality from Brazil, from European origin and from local German farmers are compared, in terms of energy. Secondly, a comparison of lamb meat from New Zealand and lamb meat from local German farmers is conducted. Lamb meat has been investigated, because it is shipped around the world as frozen natural food, not concentrated like juices. In addition, the business size of the food producers is researched for both examples. Methods As a part of LCA the energy turnover of each process step from the very beginning up to the point of sale is investigated. These primary results are the basic empirical data, in order to allocate the energy turnover at the food items as functional units. The results of regional, European-continental and of global process chains are compared. In addition, the issue is investigated, whether the specific energy turnover depends upon the business size. Results and Discussion Surprisingly, the data in both cases demonstrate a strong degressive relation of the specific energy turnover and the business size. Here it is not important, if the business is regional or not. Merely the efficiency and logistics of the production and the operations determine the specific energy turnover. These findings seem closely connected with the business size, because small companies are not able to invest in energy recovering and saving technology. The regional juices business is worsened by the huge number of smallsized transports of the crop and the nearly bottle-wise distribution. Regarding lamb meat we once more find the disadvantages of comparably small farms again. In addition, the German farmers need daily shepherds, fences by night, stables and usually additional feed during the wintertime. All these efforts are not necessary in New Zealand, where the climatic conditions and the open countryside with low population allow rather easy and low energy breeding of lamb. Conclusion The coincidence of economic and ecological facts is obvious. As a matter of fact, in economics there is a strong degressive relation between the production costs and the number of produced items. This relation is very well known as “Economy of Scale.” Our findings lead to similar conclusions, in terms of ecology. That means, the production ecology depends on the number of produced items. Additionally, our results demonstrate a minimum business size, so that we can claim an “Ecology of Scale” as well. However, on the other hand, the reported data and the conclusions are valid for the investigated food items fruit juices and lamb meat only. Nevertheless, one conclusion is already evident: The most popular claims for regional food production and distribution instead of global process chains are not generally valid. Small farmers basically need much more energy to produce and distribute their products, compared with bigger units. Both food items demonstrate clearly, that the ecological quality is mainly influenced by the operational efficiency and not by the marketing distance itself. Recommendation and Outlook Much more detailed data of all the investigated operational units, processing fruit juices and lamb meat, have been published (Fleissner 2001). As a further example, we investigate wine from different countries as a further example. Different from fruit juices, which can be shipped as a concentrate, and different from lamb meat, which is shipped as frozen food, wine of high grade quality is always bottled close to the place of origin. That means, that not only the food, but also the heavy weight packaging is transported around the world. So, we are very curious about the results, which we expect for 2004.