Air Freight - The Environmental Issue

It was always a luxury when off season fruit andenvironment. Green campaigners and soil associations
vegetables were available to buy in the winterhave called for a ban on off season and organic
months throughout England, many years ago.foods, being transported into the United Kingdom.
Nowadays off season fruit and veg are alwaysHowever the freighting industry has explained that
available at an affordable price. This becomingthere is only a small proportion of off season foods
increasingly common for more off season foods. Thebeing transported into the U.K. They have also hit
reason being is that it is a lot cheaper to fly foodsback saying the carbon emissions produced by the
and other goods in and around the U.K However airfreighting of off season goods, only accounts for a
freight is under attack from green campaigners andtiny percentage of the total carbon emissions
other parties such as the soil association. Theproduced in the U.K
following article will cover the issues facing air freightSoil associations are targeting organic foods, however
and the reasons why green campaigners don't like it.organic foods require 15% less energy to produce
Fuel price fixing and the type of air freight servicescompared to non-organic foods. These issues are
available will also be addressed.clearly becoming a higher priority with major changes
There are different types, sizes and weights of airin the weather world wide. However one measure
freight packages. Weight being an important factor inlooking to be put into place is highlighting the number
cost. The delivery times also depend on differentof miles the product has traveled on the packaging.
types of packaging. Air freighting involving householdThis is meant to make the buyer more aware of the
goods is the most common and simplest form of aircost the product has caused to the environment.
freight. The reason for the simplistic approach to airThe other method being looked at is to ban organic
freighting, is because they often do not requireand off season foods being imported.
special handling.However this is not the only issue facing air
Support class recovery is another type of air freight.freighting.It has been made aware to the public that
This involves packages which are small and thosesome companies have been fixing the fuel price
which require express of overnight delivery includingsurcharges, for air forwarding flights, which has lead
letters. There are many different companies whoto an investigation being launched. The airlines
deal with this type of air freighting. There are manyincluding British Airways and United Airlines are being
other types of delivery, which require air freightingsued by a Tanzanian firm for fixing fuel prices.
and shipping.There are always campaigners bringing up more
Pollution is the number one component for the attackissues facing freighting and the effects on the
on air freight companies, by green campaigners. Aenvironment. With the increased worry of global
ban has been called upon for the air freighting ofwarming and climate change, green parties and
certain goods including food, due to the pollutionpoliticians will continually be addressing issues
caused when transporting these goods, effecting thesurrounding pollution.