By Hannah (Minimal Lifestyle EVS – 2020)
It‘s main characteristic is that there is a small distance between the place of consumption and the place of recolection/harvest, meaning it doesn’t go through global trade chains. A product can be called zero-km-product when it has traveled less than 100 km, and it’s produced ecologically and organically.
Organic production: According to FAO, is a global system of management of the production that foments healthy ecosystems, including diversity, seasons and biological activity of the soils. It is an agriculture more focused to processes than to products: low (or non) level of pesticides, cultivation
following methods that encourages a sustainable environment (preserve biodiversity, increase soil fertility, no manipulation of the fruits during the process), they offer fair prices to the producers (specially in developing countries), doesn’t use intensive production. It is more regulated, and has to pass a major number of controls. For many reasons, the cost is higher.
Ecological production: According to the EU, is the same than organic production. But there is not an agreement. Some people consider agroecology the ecological management of the natural resources through
collective social actions, to create and establish a democratic and participative control of the production and transportation of aliments. It’s a integral or holistic discipline that includes social conditions of production
and transportation. The agricultures get involved in the process of investigation.
Benefits of 0-KM food:
- Environmentally friendly -> doesn’t involve importing food from foreign countries (by ship, train or even plane).
- Tastes better ->fresher and better quality (doesn’t lose quality because of long storages or transportations).
- Supports unique local food species to not be lost.
- Makes us more independant since we don’t depend on global food players.
It‘s not enough that the product is local, it should also be regional because also the energy used to cultivate, store and process can be very harmfull for the environment!
E.g.: the four week journey for a fresh spring apple to travel in a container ship from New Zealand to EU consumes less energy than a local apple kept in cold storage for several months!
Slow Food movement:
An international movement that defends that everybody can have access to a healthy alimentation for the population as well as for the producers and the earth. It is opposed to the standardization of the taste and the uncontrolled power of the alimentation and agriculture industry. Slow food also tries to avoid the disappearance of local and traditional alimentation, and to fight against the selfless interest about the aliments and how they are produced and consumed, and how our decision influence and affects
the world around. Slow Food considers that alimentation is related to other aspects of life, such as culture, politics, agriculture, and environment. It
defends the idea of buying and consuming food products taking into account the footprint, the fair commerce, and the ethical commitment with local producers.
