The Carbon Footprint of Sushi
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 05.31.07
Nick Tosches wrote "If you knew Sushi" for this month's Vanity Fair (read it here, its amazing) , and describes a visit to the Tsukiji market in Tokyo. He follows the path of a particular bluefin tuna.
"The tuna that lies before Iida-san on its belly was swimming fast and heavy after mackerel a few days ago under cold North Atlantic waves. In an hour or so, its flesh will be dispatched in parcels to the various sushi chefs who have chosen to buy it. Iida-san is about to make the first of the expert cuts that will quarter the 300-pound tuna lengthwise."
Nobody wanted bluefin tuna in America 30 years ago; it was caught for cat food. Then they figured out how to air freight it to Tokyo in stryrofoam tuna coffins and a new industry was born. Now there are sushi restaurants on every corner of America; The best ones get fish from Tsukiji. Nick says that the best of the best is Masa in New York.
But what is the cost in carbon for all this flying around? Lets look at Nick's Bluefin, which sold at auction for 855,000 yen, or $7,250, or $23 per pound, assume some of it went to Masa and figure it out. We are talking extreme food miles.
We calculated the distance from Gloucester to JFK, air miles to Tokyo, truck to Tsukiji (estimate) back to JFK and by truck to Masa. We got the CO2 in grams per ton per kilometer from Pablo at TriplePundit. The fish weighs 150kg, so we then calculated the CO2 per fish per km and multiplied that by the distance and added it up.
What a shocker. 2,241 kilograms of CO2 for a 150 kg fish. There are about 10,000 pieces of sushi in a fish that size, so each is about 15 grams. The carbon footprint of each piece of that sushi is 224 grams, or almost 15 times its own weight in Carbon Dioxide.
It's like eating carbon.
So the next time you order takeout from Masa, take a pass on the Bluefin.
I recently watched a fantastic wildlife programme on our Welsh TV channel S4C that highlighted how high fish food miles can be.
It focused on how fish caught off the Welsh coast by European trawlers will be taken to an auction in countries such as Belgium, where they will often be bought by British chefs.
This means that the fish can end up in a restaurant just miles from where they were originally caught.
All a little ridiculous really, but a result of various EU laws, regulations and market forces.
Coincidentally, shuttling a 5 year old around in a "Mom taxi" puts out 15 times the kid's weight in carbon every year (in the US).
Ayup. This is why I eat my sushi vegan (except on some rare occasions) and have been rolling my own sushi for years. Sure...the rice and nori have been shipped, but those are stable dry goods that don't have to have the rush shipping of fish.
I live in Florida, and I've gone snorkeling for my own scallops and lobster. Perhaps it's time restauranteurs consider making local sushis more popular. I know I'd be interested in seeing a lot more fame given to Florida's local fishes...sea trout, grouper, bay scallops, clawless lobster, etc.
Not to mention I read in National Geographic a month or two ago that Bluefin are being overfished at a horrific rate. They may not be endangered yet, but if current trends continue, they may well be endangered or extinct within the next decade.
Coincidentally, shuttling a 5 year old around in a "Mom taxi" puts out 15 times the kid's weight in carbon every year (in the US).
Correction: every 19 days
Avg weight of 5 year old = 43 pounds
Avg fuel economy of light vehicles = 19.5 mpg
CO2 per gallon of fuel = 19.5 lbs
CO2 per mile = 1 lb.
Avg person-miles per day, 5 year old = 34 miles
per year = 12,419 miles
This info...."almost 15 times its own weight in Carbon Dioxide." doesn't have much meaning to me without knowing how much other foods have. Also, given that it is part of a rice dish, how much does that change the equation when compared to the carbon footprint of something like an equal number of calories of chicken teriyaki?
I'm glad I switched to vegetable sushi a year ago. I'll still occasionally get things containing crab or shrimp, but no tuna, salmon, or other fish.
Originally I just did it because tuna is silly to eat. It eats so high on the food chain and uses lots of energy to survive that I've heard it can take 20 pounds of fish protein (and much more than that in plant matter) to make 1 pound of tuna.