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Climate Friendly Foods

Climate Friendly Food is a small Community Interest Company based in the beautiful countryside of Devon, the Scilly Isles and Lancashire. We are creating what we believe to be the UK's most comprehensive carbon calculator which is bespoke for farmers. We are also developing a world first accreditation scheme for foods with a lower carbon footprint.

The user friendly Carbon Calculator will be on the website where farmers will enter data about their farm, such as the number of different animals, electricity use and type, diesel usage per year and soil carbon content. The calculator covers all carbon sinks on the farm and all aspects of organic farm inputs and outputs to the point of sale. The Carbon Calculator is based on peer reviewed data such as Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils in England (King et al., 2004) and will allow producers to accurately assess the amount of carbon their business is both emitting and sequestering, enabling farmers to target their efforts to minimise emissions and maximise sequestration.

The carbon calculator is currently designed only for farms practising organic production methods for simplicity, as organic farming in general has fewer different types of inputs, making the calculations more straightforward. A version will be developed to include all farmers and growers in the near future.

Those farmers and growers who demonstrate good practice in minimising emissions in carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide can be awarded a gold, silver or bronze award for their produce through our Climate Friendly Food accreditation and labelling scheme. This can empower consumer choice. Reducing emissions can also offer costs savings and a higher degree of farm resilience, particularly in relation to spikes in oil prices.

Next steps

Monday October 12th at Schumacher College in Dartington, Devon, sees the start of a week long chain of events marking the official launch of Climate Friendly Food’s free on line carbon calculator tool and  low carbon food certification scheme.

Two of the team, Mukti Mitchell and Jonathan Smith will cycle between organic farms, holding events for farmers and growers. This will culminate in an appearance at the Schumacher lectures on Saturday October 17th in Bristol.  See www.climatefriendlyfood.org.uk for full details.

In 2010, we will launch a carbon calculator for consumers, develop a carbon calculator for all farmers and growers (not just organic). We will also establish a demonstration farm, run courses, events and qualifications,  publish literature and start to disseminate the model on an international basis.

History of the project

The project started as an idea to compete for the £1m Big Green Challenge prize by Jenny Hall. Despite making the top 20 projects in the UK, Climate Friendly Food didn't succeed in winning; however Jenny and others decided that the project must continue as the work is so important and Jonathan Smith joined the project.

In 2009 Mukti Mitchell, creator of the Resurgence Carbon Calculator came on board. In April Jonathan and Mukti completed a prototype carbon calculator for organic growers, which has been piloted and peer reviewed. This has informed the process of creating a carbon calculator for public release, aimed at organic farmers and growers.

Questions we are addressing

Our work will help find out the extent to which soil and biomass on farms can sequester carbon, whilst also providing food for people. We are also looking at whether techniques such as biochar, energy self-sufficiency and electric tractors are realistic and affordable on a farm scale. Our work will help to normalise the trend of a carbon currency – i.e. people dealing in tonnes of CO2 as well as £.

Big questions for food climate research

Many big questions remain unanswered, such as; How can the food chain be restructured to make it less oil dependent and reduce carbon emissions? How can carbon sequestration be maximised on farms? Can supermarkets and a centralised distribution system exist in a post-Peak Oil world that needs to reduce its carbon emissions by at least 80% by 2050?

Expertise and collaboration needs

Research surrounding the biological processes of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration is very complex and constantly evolving. We would more than welcome help and advice on information that will make our carbon calculator more robust and accurate.

About the people at Climate Friendly Foods

There are four directors, based in Lancashire, Devon and the Isles of Scilly. We all work from home and don't have a central office. We are part funded and also work on this project on a voluntary basis. Between us we have a broad range of experience in organic farming and growing, low carbon lifestyles, Carbon footprinting, the Transition Movement and community projects. Besides this we all have our own businesses, so have a wide range of experiences.