Local asparagus has the best carbon footprint

In the SWR programme Marktcheck, Dr. Ulrike Eberle from corsus was interviewed about the environmental impact of asparagus. The question was how the carbon footprint of imported asparagus compares to local asparagus from Germany. The results are clear: asparagus from Germany, which is also consumed locally, performs best.

But this also depends on how the asparagus is grown. If the asparagus field is warmed with waste heat, for example from biogas plants, then the balance looks much worse. Even if no environmental impact is attributed to the waste heat, the laying of the necessary pipes and the energy of the pump have a significant impact. From a climate perspective, even asparagus from southern Europe would be better. However, it looks very bad for asparagus from Peru, which is usually brought to us by aircraft. It performs 10 times worse than German asparagus.

Conclusion: To protect the climate, it is worth waiting until asparagus is actually in season here! And best of all: in the tasting, German asparagus scored best – yet another reason!

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