rikur_ wrote:..Living off locally grown chicken, apples and carrots would be a lot better than imported bananas and kiwi fruit, with their transport and chilling impact...
<slightly aviation..
>
Some years ago, when wide-bodied airliner direct flights between Europe and Africa/Asia/South America started becoming commonplace, so also 'exotic source' produce started appearing (and cheaply) in UK supermarkets; eg, mangetout peas from Kenya. I was told by someone in the wholesale fruit business that these were related:
a. (especially US) airliner MTOWs and freight hold capacities were designed on the assumption that configuration
might be all-tourist and
might be full and all passengers
might be adult (and large US!) males each of whom
might have used their full baggage allowance (pieces and weight).
b. This was very rarely true, so that most flights heading to Europe had hold space and weight to spare, which could be sold at very short notice to freight agents at the departure airport. This meant that a Kenyan farmer/wholesaler with a suitably packed container of peas could truck it to Nairobi airport with reasonable confidence that within 24h it would reach somewhere in Europe (it hardly mattered where) where there would be a willing wholesale buyer.
This meant that the transportation cost in 'air miles' was fairly marginal, just a bit of extra weight probably adding a bit to fuel consumption in initial climb.
Now, I gather, the process of taking advantage (for all sorts of commodities) of lastminute air freight capacity is much slicker, and freight holds in newer airliners are not quite so generous, so that the Kenyan farmer may have a bit more of a problem. The wholesaler may have to book specific hold space in advance, at greater cost.
Happy, as ever, to be corrected.
(mere guide at) Jet Age Museum, Gloucestershire Airport
http://www.jetagemuseum.org/TripAdvisor Excellence Award 2015
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction ... gland.html