Meryl Streep checking out cider; Arnaldo Magnani/Contributor/Getty Images
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Meryl Streep checking out cider; Arnaldo Magnani/Contributor/Getty Images
Whenever I am talking about making appropriate choices about sustainability, my favourite example is a comparison between the energy and effort involved in making and delivering organic apple cider, pressed less than a hundred miles from my house, and orange juice, which comes mostly from Brazil and Florida, shipped to Florida so the box can say "Florida Squeezed," pasteurized at high temperature, then shipped in trains or trucks across the country. Both drinks give a pleasurable shot of energy, but one has a carbon footprint many times that of the other.
Brendan Keorner of the online magazine Slate looks at the production of orange juice in greater detail , answering the question of which is better, boxed, or concentrated orange juice, but noting that they both take huge amounts of energy and resources.
The fact that orange juice is so prevalent on America's breakfast tables is something of a modern marvel. Virtually all of the OJ consumed in the United States contains oranges produced in Florida and Brazil; these two industry players produce half of the world's oranges, and 95 percent of that fruit ends up as juice. Environmentalists have long decried the recent proliferation of orange groves in Brazil, citing the crop's insatiable thirst (up to 129,000 cubic feet of water per acre annually) and the heavy use of pesticides (though juice oranges require less spraying than those intended for direct consumption).
He concludes that boxed juice comes out ahead of concentrate, but we would go further and suggest that if you live anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon Line you are probably better off with a good cold glass of locally pressed apple cider. ::Slate
Difficulty Level: Easy
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