Carte blanche collective published in Le Soir and Echo of April 6, 2007
That's it, the Easter holidays are upon us, with their leave or vacation. But also and especially with Easter eggs that the Easter Bunny came directly from Rome cast off in our gardens. Then, when to eat, we will taste the lamb ... New Zealand. And this, we 're in Brussels, Paris, Rome or Berlin. Indeed, across Europe, this lamb is currently offered in hundreds of millions of consumers at a ridiculously low price, far less than that of local lamb ("the premises" means any European origin), reaching a record of 5.30 € per kg in French hypermarkets (1). And this is where the miracle of Easter, because one wonders how it is possible that such "quality meat" from a place of origin so far (18,700 km as the crow flies), including information services consumers contacted were unable to say or whether the good has come by plane or boat (2), is found in our European shelves so cheap.
We often hear that the price (very) cheap perishable goods imported from overseas is largely due to low wages in the countries of origin. This is certainly true, indeed, for Peru, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, Senegal and Ethiopia, respectively, from which we import asparagus, strawberries, shellfish, roses, tomatoes or beans, the most often by air, and where poverty is widespread, as countries were cited at least one third of the population living on less than two dollars a day. To some analysts and professionals, therefore, these massive imports are now rampant real lever for development for these countries. Let. But what then of the New Zealand lamb? Indeed, New Zealand, ranked in the top 20 world countries with the best "human development index" (3), properly installed between Spain and Germany, is far from being part of developing countries. So how come she Export these animals at a price so low, in the absence of cheap labor, and including costs of transport over a distance that is approximately half a world tour? The question is open! And for us, citizens concerned about what falls into our base, we rely on the miracle and, most importantly, we wonder if all this is sustainable.
Indeed, any movement of goods has a significant cost, both financially and environmentally. Of course, a little over 5 gallons of oil for air transport (4) does not weigh very heavily in the balance when you know that kerosene costs much less than a liter of Spa (5). Of course, the cost of shipping is still much lower (about 30 times cheaper than the airline). But there is enormous compared to transport a locally raised lamb. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) met this week in Brussels to assess what the impacts of climate change on our societies, and we know from the outset that countries most vulnerable are the poorest, because they are unable to adapt to these changes Climate deep, we can ask questions.
Questions ... We realize that these few paragraphs pose without really providing answers. But is not that always the case when a miracle occurs?
The collective "Red Plane"
(1) From April 4 to 10, Crossroads offers leg of lamb to 5.55 € / kg in Belgium.
(2) According to information obtained from Carrefour and Delhaize, it appears that the mode of transport used to carry the New Zealand lamb currently proposed is a mixture of air (approximately 24 hours) and sea ( "three good weeks in refrigerated container" ) which, depending on opportunities, would "not affect the final price for the consumer" .
(3) Under the UN Programme Development .
(4) It takes approximately 5.6 liters of kerosene to transport one kilogram of goods from New Zealand.
(5) The ridiculously low price of kerosene largely explains why the transport of goods by air has increased from 1960 to 2006, from 2 to 150 billion ton-kilometers, an increase by 75!
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