Food Freight

This report assesses Best Practice Food Distribution Systems that might contribute to achievement of significant environmental improvements (i.e. reductions in GHG emissions) and/or reduce vulnerabilities in food systems.

Leadership was identified in five categories:

·       Farmer and consumer led initiatives (e.g. farmers' markets; coops; online hubs etc);

·       Food retailers;

·       Food manufacturers and marketers;

·       Third party logistics providers; and

·       Local councils, State and Federal Governments.

38 different initiatives were studied and results were extracted for each category, regarding:

·       Drivers and motivations;

·       Innovative aspects and opportunities;

·       Obstacles and challenges; and

·       Lessons learned - applicability to future initiatives.

This report highlights a wide range of alternatives that can help to decrease GHG emissions, and potentially reduce vulnerability in food distribution systems. Rather than advocating for a unique approach to be used, this report shows that each player in the chain has potential to contribute to the development of sustainable and resilient food distribution systems, whether at a local, national or international level.

Similarly, there are opportunities for players in each category to learn from and develop ideas from the others. The opportunities for abatement, and the creation of more resilient and sustainable supply chains, are significant.

For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

This report is part of a larger food freight project, see also project description and Understanding Victoria's F&V Freight Movements.

To create a sustainable and resilient fruit and vegetable distribution system, it is useful to first try to understand the current one.

This work maps out Victoria's fruit and vegetable freight movements from production to fork and analyses the greenhouse gas emissions produced through these movements. The analysis is focused only on the transport components of the supply chain, including refrigeration within transport where required, but it does not include energy use of emissions from production, processing, packaging etc.

It is hoped that this work will also support further exploration of the circumstances in Victoria where new systems of F&V distribution could achieve significant GHG reductions and reduced vulnerability to oil scarcity / price escalations.

This project was conducted by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at CSIRO, and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it from Food Chain Intelligence. For general information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab. For technical information, contact one of these authors.

This report is part of a larger food freight project - see also project description and Best Practice Food Distribution Systems.