Regional or global? The question of low-emission food sourcing addressed with spatial optimization modelling

摘要: Does producing staple food locally cause fewer greenhouse gas emissions than sourced through imports from another continent? To address this question we used a spatial optimization approach that minimized production and transport of five commodities (barley, maize, oil, sugar wheat) compared to setting local where distances between consumption were minimized. We focused on the example two countries - Brazil Germany in order allow modelling at high resolution. In model, minimization led an allocation large shares locations abroad. contrast, case, optimized distance only, resulted higher emissions. Our findings show despite additional needs for imports, specialization specified crops can represent low climate impact strategy. Model spatially production.Minimization abroad.Regional import-dependent production.