The environmental effects of seasonal food purchase: a raspberry case study

The environmental effects of seasonal food supply have been explored through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of raspberries supplied to UK consumers at different times of year. Supply of raspberries at different times of the year draws on different production systems and locations. Despite that, the results of this LCA, based on data from individual producers, reveal relatively small differences in impacts for different times of supply, except in the case of the water footprint measures. LCIA results are very sensitive to fruit yield. So in this case, yield and agricultural practice appear stronger drivers of the environmental burden of food production than is time of supply. In such situations a strong focus on “seasonality” in sustainable food provisioning is unlikely to deliver large environmental benefits. Using LCA to establish what benefits might be available from a more general shift to “seasonal” food consumption, often advocated as more “sustainable”, will require a multi-product approach. Such an approach could take current food consumption patterns or environmental targets as its starting point.