[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"question:25:en-US":3},{"metadata":4,"sys":15,"fields":35},{"tags":5,"concepts":14},[6,11],{"sys":7},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":10},"Link","Tag","global",{"sys":12},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":13},"hunger",[],{"space":16,"id":20,"type":21,"createdAt":22,"updatedAt":23,"environment":24,"publishedVersion":28,"revision":29,"contentType":30,"locale":34},{"sys":17},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"Space","ghhpjogyw4x7","3f46e1824f80d52dda434c8e06ff9d0a","Entry","2021-11-11T07:06:28.879Z","2024-10-09T08:28:30.644Z",{"sys":25},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},"master","Environment",70,18,{"sys":31},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":33},"ContentType","question","en-US",{"globalId":36,"answers":37,"answersAsImages":58,"wrongPercentage":94,"name":95,"questionText":96,"statistics":97,"veryWrongStatistics":99,"correctSentence":101,"youWereWrong":102,"youWereRight":103,"dataSourceShortText":104,"dataSourceLinkLongText":105,"extendedAnswerText":106,"headingVeryWrong":107,"youWereVeryWrong":102,"headingWrong":107},"25",[38,60,77],{"metadata":39,"sys":42,"fields":55},{"tags":40,"concepts":41},[],[],{"space":43,"id":45,"type":21,"createdAt":46,"updatedAt":47,"environment":48,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":52,"locale":34},{"sys":44},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"edb8dd19e6bbbba6fde2061d6368ff8b","2021-11-11T06:51:29.153Z","2024-10-09T08:28:30.736Z",{"sys":49},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},21,13,{"sys":53},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},"answer",{"globalId":56,"correctAnswer":57,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":59},"25-a1",true,false,"17kg",{"metadata":61,"sys":64,"fields":74},{"tags":62,"concepts":63},[],[],{"space":65,"id":67,"type":21,"createdAt":68,"updatedAt":69,"environment":70,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":72,"locale":34},{"sys":66},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"7b5203b7e65924c4d279f69971fbb6ed","2021-11-11T06:51:32.201Z","2024-10-09T08:28:30.775Z",{"sys":71},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":73},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":75,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":76},"25-a2","37kg",{"metadata":78,"sys":81,"fields":91},{"tags":79,"concepts":80},[],[],{"space":82,"id":84,"type":21,"createdAt":85,"updatedAt":86,"environment":87,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":89,"locale":34},{"sys":83},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"ed153a91b3efee0968b944d81e804dc9","2021-11-11T06:51:30.643Z","2024-10-09T08:28:30.811Z",{"sys":88},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":90},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":92,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":57,"answerText":93},"25-a3","57kg",89,"For every 100kg of food produced in the world, how","For every 100kg of food produced in the world, how much is transported to a different country?",[98],"uk 0.89",[100],"uk 0.56","Globally, 17% of all food produced is exported internationally.","You have probably heard of many kinds of foods travelling the globe for no good reason but, in reality, most food doesn’t travel abroad.","They have probably heard of many kinds of foods travelling the globe for no good reason but, in reality, most food doesn’t travel abroad.","Source: FAO","In the article “Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers” in Science in February 2019, J. Poore and T. Nemecek calculated the share of food that is transported internationally using data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) 2013 food balance sheets. They had a figure of 17%. We used their calculations as a template using 2019 FAO data and that is how we got the same figure of 17kg of every 100kg of food produced being transported internationally (It had actually increased to 18% in 2017 but has gone back to 17kg again). FAO data is reported by each country and as such the accuracy varies. If you focus on the share of calories from food transported internationally rather than the number of kgs, the answer will be higher than 17%, closer to [23%](https:\u002F\u002Fagupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\u002Fdoi\u002Fpdf\u002F10.1002\u002F2014EF000250), but this is still far lower than the wrong options to our question, which were 37% and 57%, which most people guessed. \nTwo independent experts we contacted agree that the figure we use for the correct answer appeared accurate and had no objections either to the source or the way it was calculated. \n\n[1]  Source for the correct answer: [FAO data calculated by Gapminder.](https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.google.com\u002Fspreadsheets\u002Fd\u002F1PMW0ILMg1gFMOywtgPBUUR3ADF9NE75fhsIBkJkOceY\u002Fedit#gid=0)  \n[2]  Inspiration for our calculations:\n[“Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers” article published in Science on 22 February 2019 by J. Poore and T. Nemecek.](https:\u002F\u002Fjosephpoore.com\u002FScience%20360%206392%20987%20-%20Accepted%20Manuscript.pdf)  \n[3]  [Our World In Data. “You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local.”](https:\u002F\u002Fourworldindata.org\u002Ffood-choice-vs-eating-local)  \n[4]  [“Hand peeling of North Sea shrimp not going away…” - source for hand peeling shrimp in expanded section](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.undercurrentnews.com\u002F2016\u002F09\u002F16\u002Fklaas-puul-ceo-hand-peeling-of-north-sea-shrimp-not-going-away\u002F)  \n[5]  [Financial Times article from July 9, 2019 - “Environmental criticism mounts over EU-South America trade deal”](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ft.com\u002Fcontent\u002F055ac66c-9d9e-11e9-9c06-a4640c9feebb) \n","We constantly hear about globalization and see many food items we buy in stores that come from all over the world. We forget, though, to check where the staple foods we eat most come from. They are usually not as exotic and are from closer to home. \n\nCheck out hundreds of [food plates](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gapminder.org\u002Fdollar-street\u002F?topic=plates-of-food&media=image) from all over the world, across different income levels.\n\n### Why is it a problem that people are wrong about this?\nThe concept that most food is transported makes it seem like the whole food system must be changed. This leads to more drastic changes than are actually needed. Most of the world’s food system does not depend on unsustainable transport. And even if there is too much transporting of food which leads to unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions, [exaggerating those emissions](https:\u002F\u002Fourworldindata.org\u002Ffood-choice-vs-eating-local) can take the focus away from larger sources of greenhouse gasses.\n\n### Food transport is the worst for the environment, right?\nRoughly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions come from food production, but [transportation is not more than 6%](https:\u002F\u002Fourworldindata.org\u002Ffood-ghg-emissions) of all emissions from food production. For many products, like beef, transportation is just 0.5%. Therefore, eating locally produced food often doesn’t reduce emissions as much as people imagine. To reduce emissions, switching away from beef, lamb and dairy will have a [much larger impact](https:\u002F\u002Fourworldindata.org\u002Ffood-choice-vs-eating-local#where-do-the-emissions-from-our-food-come-from) than switching from imported to local meat.\n\n### How representative are the media images of food transport?\nStories in the media about foods being transported a long way are what stick in people’s minds, such as extremely unsustainable activities like [shrimp caught in the North Sea being transported to Africa or China for peeling](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.undercurrentnews.com\u002F2016\u002F09\u002F16\u002Fklaas-puul-ceo-hand-peeling-of-north-sea-shrimp-not-going-away\u002F ) before coming back for sale, or [meat being imported to Europe from South America](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ft.com\u002Fcontent\u002F055ac66c-9d9e-11e9-9c06-a4640c9feebb). These exceptions represent a very small fraction of all food, but they are so mind-boggling that we remember them and we fail to realize that most of our food comes from home.","Most foods are not globetrotters"]