Guidelines for Ecological Cost Management of Food Miles: The Case of Chiang Mai City

Abstract

The distance of the food from the source of production to the final consumer indicates the ecological cost. The closer distance will cause less ecological cost than the longer one. The article is the case study of Chiang Mai people’s food mile for the purpose of analysing the food miles from the source of production to the consumer in Chiang Mai by collecting the data of the source of agricultural products, the number of products, and the transportation distant to calculate the food miles, using the weighted average source distance (WASD) to calculate the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission.

The results showed that Chiang Mai people’s food miles have the weighted average source distance of 71.3 kilometres, 2.96 tCO2e as the Greenhouse Gas emission rate. For the cost of transportation, the calculating of the transportation cost average is 223.95 Bahtperton. The food consumption on closer distance to the source, support the product from the community’s market, or the noncommercial cultivation not only reduces the effect of the food miles, but also builds the stability and balance of the food on the scale of a city, community, and household for the sufficiency, accessibility, benefit, and balance of the food. The data shows the situation and important source of Chiang Mai people that requires a standard and management direction to secure and develop the potential of the source location which sustainably creates stability of food and safeguard the ecosystem of Chiang Mai city.