Report raises concern over Europe's land-use footprint

Seed Daily via AFP: Imports to meet Europe's ever-growing food demand require it using land beyond its borders roughly the size of Scandinavia, according to a new study that urges belt-tightening. China, Brazil, Argentina, India and the United States are the main land hosts for European consumption, but poorer nations like Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan and Ghana also contribute, said the report by campaigners Friends of the Earth Europe.

"The EU is importing the equivalent of 1,212,050 square kilometres (about 0.5 million square miles) to meet its demand for food," it said. "It means the EU is importing 45 percent of the land it needs for the production of the food it consumes."

With every product humans consume, they also indirectly consume the land used to produce it. "Many people don't realise the food, paper, furniture, computers, mobile phones and other products we consume in Europe have negative environmental and social impacts, mainly outside our borders," Friends of the Earth campaigner Ariadna Rodrigo said in a statement.

"Our overconsumption is directly contributing to communities losing their land, deforestation, climate change and water scarcity."...

An Italian grocery in Toulouse, France, shot by Catalarem, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license