Comparing environmental impacts of regional and national-scale food supply chains: A case study of processed tomatoes Sonja Brodt a,⇑ , Klaas Jan Kramer b , Alissa Kendall c , Gail Feenstra a a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, Agricultural Sustainability Institute, University of California Davis, 1 Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616, USA b KJKramer Consulting, Henri Schuytstraat 15, 1901 AT Castricum, The Netherlands c Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, 1 Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616, USA article info Article history: Received 29 May 2012 Received in revised form 29 May 2013 Accepted 27 July 2013 Available online 30 August 2013 Keywords: Energy use Food miles Greenhouse gas emissions Life cycle assessment Local food Organic abstract This study uses life cycle assessment methodology to quantify the energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water use of processed tomato products grown, processed, and consumed within the Great Lakes region of the United States, and tomato products produced in California and then shipped to the Great Lakes region for consumption. The purpose is to assess the potential for regional food sys- tems to reduce selected environmental impacts, particularly the energy and GHG footprints, of con- sumer-ready, processed food products, when compared to national-scale food systems in which consumer products are shipped long distances. The study also examines the role of different types of food processing in influencing life cycle energy use, water use, and emissions. Our results indicate that California-produced conventional and organic tomato paste and canned diced tomatoes are almost equivalent in energy use and GHG emissions to regionally produced and consumed products, but use of developed water resources is significantly higher for California-grown products. Cal- ifornia tomato production benefits from higher per hectare yields and soil amendments with lower car- bon dioxide emissions. These efficiencies substantially offset the added energy use and GHG emissions associated with long-distance shipment of products to the Great Lakes region, as long as shipments are made by rail rather than by truck. Paste, the more processed and concentrated product evaluated, amplifies any environmental advantages or disadvantages accrued in the field production stage, due to its raw tomato to finished product ratio of 6:1, suggesting that comparative regional advantage can play a role in lowering life cycle environmental impacts of highly condensed foods shipped long distances. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Amid growing concerns about climate change and long-term petroleum reserves, the food system looms large as a major user of fossil fuels and producer of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Recent studies suggest that the food system is responsible for up to 29% of global warming generated by the consumer economy in indus- trialized nations (European Commission, 2006). Consumers and popular media have become very interested in the concept of ‘‘food miles’’ as a way to assess the relative ‘‘carbon footprint’’ of their food choices, under the assumption that long-distance shipment of food products is inherently more energy- and GHG-intensive than local sourcing. This interest is reflected in the growth in US di- rect-to-consumer sales of agricultural products of 120% between 1997 and 2007 (Martinez et al., 2010). A consumer survey by the Hartmann group also showed that consumer preferences for local food now even surpass preferences for organic food (Jalonick, 2011). Despite the interest in local foods, large-scale studies of na- tional food systems show that transportation accounts for less than 15% of the energy use and GHG emissions of food products (Heller and Keoleian, 2000; Weber and Matthews, 2008). These large-scale studies are based on evaluations of economic input–output data for the food sector on a national scale. While they are useful in identifying general patterns across the entire sector and its supply chains, they cannot be used to identify particular differences be- tween locally-sourced versus nationally-sourced food products, nor to identify specific areas of high energy use or emissions (so- called hot-spots) within specific product supply chains. A process-based approach, such as process-based life cycle assessment (LCA), provides a method for evaluating a specific product or category of products and its associated supply chain. In doing so, an LCA calculates the environmental impact associated with each stage or unit process in the life cycle, including upstream environmental flows. 0306-9192/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.07.004 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 530 754 8547; fax: +1 530 754 8550. E-mail addresses: sbbrodt@ucdavis.edu (S. Brodt), klaasjan.kramer@gmail.com (K.J. Kramer), amkendall@ucdavis.edu (A. Kendall), gwfeenstra@ucdavis.edu (G. Feenstra). Food Policy 42 (2013) 106–114 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol