This short document published in July 2009 by Incpen (the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment) sets out a breakdown of material and energy requirements along the food supply chain and by food type to feed one person. The document is actually based on some work that INCPEN commissioned and published in 1995, so the energy use data are based on data available at that time. For food consumption figures is uses 2007 data from Defra's Family Food Survey (which provides data on food purchases).
This short document published in July 2009 by Incpen (the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment) sets out a breakdown of material and energy requirements along the food supply chain and by food type to feed one person. The document is actually based on some work that INCPEN commissioned and published in 1995, so the energy use data are based on data available at that time. For food consumption figures is uses 2007 data from Defra's Family Food Survey (which provides data on food purchases). Although the absolute values will have changed since then, the relative breakdown of energy use is unlikely to be radically different.
Note that the report only measures energy use, not total greenhouse gas emissions, and it doesn't look at waste treatment and disposal energy costs. By life cycle stage it shows, as do other studies, the dominance of the agricultural production stage (here 51% of total energy use). By food type it shows that meat and to a lesser extent milk are the most energy intensive elements in our diet. It also shows that the energy used to produce food is more than six times the energy used to produce the packaging.
Incpen says in the introduction: "We would be interested in receiving your views on this and in discussing what additional research we need today."
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