photograph by ChigyTweet
published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
The Baguette is probably the most eaten bread in France and definitely the one anglophones think of as "French Bread". It is very different to the bread sliced bread most popular in anglophone countries, mainly as the crust is what one looks for in the baguette while its the part left in sliced bread.
There are lots of interesting things to talk about in baking and bread in France, some of which I will cover in later posts. This time I find it interesting to look at the environmental impact of bread and the way its bought.
Get up early in the morning, go to a bakery and see Frenchmen coming in to get bread for their breakfast - yesterdays bread is not fresh and crispy enough for a good tartine! If you are at a bakery in a village, its striking that many people drive to collect their bread.
What is interesting from a global waring viewpoint is how the carbon footprint of transporting the bread compares with that of making the bread.
Just for those not yet following this - it has been found that the average temperature worldwide has increased increasingly rapidly over the last 30 years - now known as Global Warming. This increase has been linked to the increased emissions of gasses such as Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) and Methane which contribute to the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere - therefore the name greenhouse gas. A continued increase in temperature threatens much including water levels, agriculture and desertification. There is therefore a focus on decreasing the emission of these gasses. CO₂ has become a kind of measuring stick for emissions with the quantity emitted being termed the carbon footprint.
photograph by Sifu Renka
published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
Making bread in the United Kingdom, has been calculated to release 1220 to 1555 grams of CO₂ per kilogram of bread. Its interesting that of this energy 41% comes from the production of raw materials, 19% from processing and 25% (at least in the UK) from refrigeration and toasting in the home. Since a baguette normally weighs 250 gram and is never frozen or toasted it will produce at most 292 grams of CO₂ in its manufacture.
The shortest distance I need to drive to get to the bakery for my baguette is 2,5 kilometers. Since my car produces 189 gram of CO₂ per kilometer travelled I will have emitted 945 gram CO2 - more than three times as much as the bread I buy.
This raises all sorts of thoughts and ideas - could bread be delivered in bulk to villages, could neighbours buy for each other, would frozen dough baked at home give an acceptable bread or should the French change their eating habits.
I know from experience that you cannot get the French out of their voiture when it comes to shopping at a small distance, but foreigners can certainly set the example: I cycle to the furthest baker (his bread is the best) in Cormatin, and the distance is only 3.5 km. The 7 km a day is excellent excersise as well!
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