Apples, Bananas, and Oranges: Using GIS to Determine Distance Travelled, Energy Use, and Emissions from Imported Fruit

Public interest in food distribution systems as well as an increasing amount of food imports to the United States has resulted in a need for methods of quantifying the transportation of food imports in terms of distance travelled, energy use, and environmental impact. Geographic information systems (GIS) provide a powerful tool to organize and analyze spatial data. This study used a geographic information system to analyze monthly imports of apples, oranges, and bananas in 2008. Shipping routes were mapped, and statistics including average distance travelled, total energy use, and total greenhouse gas emissions were calculated. Bananas were imported in a much larger quantity than apples and bananas, but the average source distance, energy/ton, and emissions/ton measures were lower for bananas than for imported apples and oranges.