Eat more radishes and fewer tomatoes!
Tomatoes are the Germans' favorite vegetables, followed by cucumbers. A little variety in the menu would not only be good for us but also for the climate. Why, explains Sabine Klein from the consumer center North Rhine-Westphalia. The nutritionist has spent months working on a new seasonal calendar, which also forms the basis for the updated seasonal seasonal fruit and vegetable calendar on ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com. Sabine Klein also explains why, although the season for tomatoes and cucumbers is still there, she is searching in vain for eggplants and peppers.
Sabine Klein
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Why should we buy by season?
Sabine Klein: When we buy local fruit and vegetables from the field, we get more environmentally friendly produced and cheaper goods, which also tastes even better. Local fruits and vegetables can fully mature before being harvested. This provides for a more intense taste and also for more healthy ingredients such as vitamins and phytochemicals. Radish, broccoli, asparagus and spinach are now available in May.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Local free-range products are the first choice. But what do I do in winter when there is almost no local fruit and vegetables from the field?
Sabine Klein: We also want variety and enjoyment in winter. It's time to weigh that up. Free-range cultivation consumes the least energy and is therefore clearly the first choice. But in the winter, of course, I can not go far with it alone. The most environmentally friendly alternative is usually goods from the warehouse. Potatoes and carrots, for example, can be stored very energy-saving, because they do not place high demands on the temperature. In general, we should take more in the winter on vegetables and less to import or greenhouse. In autumn and spring, before or after the actual season, there are also many fruits and vegetables that are protected with foil or fleece and are also a good alternative. The most energy consumes vegetables from the heated greenhouse, so rather reserved purchase.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Have you changed your diet after spending so much time on the fruits and vegetables season?
Sabine Klein: Yes. I eat less tomatoes and cucumbers, because domestic goods are almost always grown in the greenhouse. Tomatoes and cucumbers are in great need of warmth, which is why the greenhouses are usually heated. Only in summer they come partly from completely unheated greenhouses, but whether that is the case with my supermarket tomatoes, I can not recognize as a consumer. And even in greenhouses, which are unheated in the summer, a lot of energy is consumed over the year. Outdoor cultivation plays hardly any role in tomatoes and cucumbers in the commercial sector.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Why not?
Sabine Klein: Tomatoes are very susceptible to fungal diseases. In damp weather there is a risk of total failure. Free-range tomatoes are also more uneven and less firm than greenhouse types, and can therefore be transported in a worse way.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Why are you looking in vain for seasonal peppers for peppers and eggplants?
Sabine Klein: The market share of domestic goods is simply too low, it is less than five percent. Peppers and eggplants, like tomatoes and cucumbers, need a lot of heat. An inexpensive production is not possible in Germany. We import a lot from Spain, where the climatic conditions are different. And from the Netherlands. Although the sun does not shine there more often than here, energy prices have been lower for a long time and the greenhouses have been heated favorably. However, this difference has leveled off more and more in recent years and Germany is catching up with heated cultivation. By the way: Although tomatoes and cucumbers also need a lot of heat, they also come from Germany. The reason: Due to the high demand higher prices for domestic goods can be achieved - and thus the cultivation is worthwhile for us.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Is not it environmentally friendly to buy tomatoes and other vegetables that need a lot of heat from southern countries like Spain?
Sabine Klein: No. Tomatoes are grown in Spain mainly in the Almería region, one of the driest areas. Tomatoes need a lot of water. The groundwater level in the area has already dropped dramatically due to irrigation. It comes to the desertification. In addition, there is intensive use of pesticides and catastrophic working and living conditions of the often illegal workforce. Even though the production of Spanish tomatoes uses less energy, it is better to use German products.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: They do not offer a seasonal calendar for imported fruits.Is there no season for foreign fruits like bananas or mangoes?
Sabine Klein: Bananas really have no season. They are grown mainly in tropical countries. There are hardly any temperature differences, bananas can be grown all year round. Mangoes are also available throughout the year. But they come from different countries. From October to March, mainly from South America and Kenya, then from Central and North America, Ivory Coast and Pakistan, and in autumn also from Israel. We get all products all year round. The catch: That is partly connected with very long transports. Delicate goods that can not survive ship transport, such as raspberries from Chile, are often flown with energy.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Can I Buy Exotic Fruits Without Harming the Environment?
Sabine Klein: There are foreign fruits that are just part of our diet, like bananas or citrus fruits in winter. Since there are only apples in Germany from November to the end of April (and pears by January), that also makes sense. And ship transports really put a damper on the environment. Due to the large quantities that are transported, the energy consumption converted to the kilo is relatively low. But that depends of course on the track. The harvest times in New Zealand and South Africa are half a year later than ours. In April and May we have the choice whether to buy freshly picked apples from the southern hemisphere or camp apples from Germany. The apples from South Africa and the German camp apples are about the same energy consumption. By contrast, the most widely traveled New Zealand apples have higher energy consumption and should not necessarily be our first choice.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Are there any rules of thumb for shopping in order to avoid giving up exotics and to keep the climate as low as possible?
Sabine Klein: In order to minimize the burden on the environment when buying imported goods, you should pay attention to the following points:
- In the summer and autumn, choose from the rich local offer and only from November, when the offer gets leaner, we will resort to imported goods.
- The closer, the better: In April, choose better grapefruits from Cyprus than from Argentina and better melons from southern Europe than from South America.
- On ship instead of air transport set. The problem: As a rule, it is not indicated how the goods were transported. If you have sensitive fruits like raspberries, blueberries or strawberries coming from South Africa or South America, you can expect air transport, and you can not survive weeks of shipping. Bananas, on the other hand, are always transported by ship. They are picked green and then ripen here. For fruits from African countries like Uganda, Togo or Ghana one can assume air transport. Road infrastructure is so poor in many African and South American countries that it is almost impossible to transport the goods to the often distant port. The following goods are also likely to be transported by air: fresh beans from Egypt, Kenya and Thailand, fresh asparagus from Peru, fresh papayas, fresh guavas, mangoes and mangosteens from Pakistan, Brazil and Thailand.
