Carbon labelling

The Carbon Trust has been pilotting a scheme to introduce a carbon footprint label on certain products.  This will give consumers the ability to make an informed choice about how much carbon has been used in the growth, manufacture and shipping of the product.

The carbon footprint of food is impossible for the normal consumer to make an informed choice about.  A good example of the contradictions involved is a tomato.  They are grown in huge heated greenhouses in the UK.  It has been shown that a tomato shipped or even flown from Spain has a smaller carbon footprint than one grown here due to the enormous heating costs.

It is something I really struggle with, as I am just guessing when I’m at the supermarket.  And due to a lack of information I tend to give up and not think about it.

If they could make a universal scheme work (this is a big if, I can see all manor of complications in the implementation of this) then I would love to see something really simple like the traffic lights scheme for calories, fat etc.  A red, orange or green light would really influence my shopping habits and help us to really find out the worst carbon offenders in our shopping basket.