By Anna Brones
You may think all the talk of eating local and shopping at farmer's markets is making a shift in the grocery buying arena, but if you do, you may want to take a step back and look at the big picture. While your friends, family and local community may be making a bigger effort to shop at smaller scale markets or specialty stores, the reality is most people aren’t getting their groceries at the same place. In fact, they’re not even going to grocery stores. They’re going to Walmart, Target and beyond.
A new study shows that it’s not the places selling organic quinoa and Swiss chard that are getting the grocery business, it’s big box stores, convenience stores and even pharmacies. King Retail Solutions partnered up with University of Arizona’s Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing and surveyed 1,200 shoppers, from millennials to baby boomers, and found 70% of them bought groceries from non-grocers in 2013.
Target and Walmart topped the list, but then came Walgreens and CVS. Farmer’s markets and food stalls came in seventh place, with a very small percentage in comparison to the big names at the top of the list.
Think about these types of stores and the first thing that comes to mind isn’t normally fresh produce; these are places that are known for processed and packaged foods. Certainly, places like Walmart do sell produce—in fact, it has committed to doubling its sale of locally grown produce by 2015—but its popularity only adds to the industrialization of our food system.
Some may argue that because of prices, these types of stores attract people with a smaller food budget. Not so. As it turns out, “the wealthier the shopper, the more likely he or she is to procure groceries from Target, Walmart or another of these non-grocers,” according to Forbes.
What are the effects of such shopping behaviors?
For one, it affects farmers. As Grist reported in 2011, ”Between 1990 and 2009, the farmers’ share of each dollar consumers spent on pork fell from 45 to 25 cents, according to the USDA Economic Research Service. Pork processors picked up some of the difference, but the bulk of the gains went to Walmart and other supermarket chains, which are now pocketing 61 cents of each pork dollar, up from 45 cents in 1990.”
Then there’s the question of health. While these stores may offer produce options, they are also right next to all of the processed, package options that we as a society need to avoid. It’s hard to avoid temptation, and temptation gets us eating food products instead of real food.
Are grocery stores and markets doomed? Maybe. Once again, it comes down to voting with our forks.
Visit EcoWatch’s FOOD and HEALTH pages for more related news on this topic.
"Now that we are spending more time at home, we are noticing the large number of delivery vans and lorries driving through cities," said Netherlands environment minister Stientje van Veldhoven, announcing plans to ban all but zero-emission deliveries in 14 cities.
"The agreements we are setting down will ensure that it will be a matter of course that within a few years, supermarket shelves will be stocked, waste will be collected, and packages will arrive on time, yet without any exhaust fumes and CO2 emissions," she added.
She expects 30 cities to announce zero emission urban logistics by this summer. City councils must give four years' notice before imposing bans as part of government plans for emission-free road traffic by 2050. The city bans aim to save 1 megaton of CO2 each year by 2030.
Help to Change
To encourage transport organizations to go carbon-free, the government is offering grants of more than US$5,900 to help businesses buy or lease electric vehicles. There will be additional measures to help small businesses make the change.
The Netherlands claims it is the first country in the world to give its cities the freedom to implement zero-emission zones. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht already have "milieuzones" where some types of vehicles are banned.
Tilburg, one of the first wave of cities imposing the Dutch ban, will not allow fossil-fuelled vehicles on streets within its outer ring road and plans to roll out a network of city-wide electric vehicle charging stations before the ban comes into effect in 2025.
"Such initiatives are imperative to improve air quality. The transport of the future must be emission-free, sustainable, and clean," said Tilburg city alderman Oscar Dusschooten.
Europe Takes Action
Research by Renault shows that many other European cities are heading in the same direction as the Netherlands, starting with Low Emission Zones of which Germany's "Umweltzone" were pioneers. More than 100 communes in Italy have introduced "Zonas a traffico limitato."
Madrid's "zona de baja emisión" bans diesel vehicles built before 2006 and petrol vehicles from before 2000 from central areas of the city. Barcelona has similar restrictions and the law will require all towns of more than 50,000 inhabitants to follow suit.
Perhaps the most stringent restrictions apply in London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which charges trucks and large vehicles up to US$137 a day to enter the central area if they do not comply with Euro 6 emissions standards. From October, the ULEZ is being expanded.
Cities are responsible for around 75% of CO2 emissions from global final energy use, according to the green thinktank REN21 - and much of these come from transport. Globally, transport accounts for 24% of world CO2 emissions.
The Rise of Online Shopping
Part of the reason for traffic in urban areas is the increase in delivery vehicles, as online shopping continues to grow. Retailer ecommerce sales are expected to pass $5billion in 2022, according to eMarketer.
The World Economic Forum's report The Future of the Last-Mile Ecosystem, published in January 2020, estimates that e-commerce will increase the number of delivery vehicles on the roads of the world's 100 largest cities by 36% by 2030.
If all those vehicles burn fossil fuels, the report says emissions will increase by 32%. But switching to all-electric delivery vehicles would cut emissions by 30% from current levels as well as reducing costs by 25%, the report says.
Other solutions explored in the report include introducing goods trams to handle deliveries alongside their passenger-carrying counterparts and increased use of parcel lockers to reduce the number of doorstep deliveries.
Reposted with permission from the World Economic Forum.