It was a hot summer at times, wasn't it? Might have been too hot, really. Climate change has caused the planet to go a bit bonkers over the last few years. The Amazon rainforest's went up in flames, the ice caps are melting at an astonishing rate and we're all destined for doom and disaster.
When it comes to doing your bit, avoiding any food source that seems even vaguely tropical seems a good place to start, right? Wrong. According to a climate scientist at the University of Edinburgh exploring what exactly sustainability means, bananas imported from the Dominican Republic, apples from New Zealand and oranges from Brazil are actually some of the most carbon-friendly foods that UK consumers can buy. But how do you attain those goods without creating a Size 12 carbon footprint? If you're Fairtransport, you do the only logical thing: set sail.
Fairtransport is the world's first modern emission-free shipping company, offering emission free food transportation across the globe. Set up by three friends with an ambition to take our international food deliveries back to basics, Fairtransport has established the reintroduction of traditional sailing cargo ships. Yep, that's right: big pirate-style boats not dissimilar from the kind that Francis Drake used to cut about the ocean on. The company's first restoration was the brigantine Tres Hombres – a vessel that's become part of the company's emission-free food transportation freight service travelling the Atlantic.
Fairtransport's second engineless ship is the Nordlys: an 1873 restoration able to carry up to 30 tonnes of goods that sails across Europe. Fairtransport's aim is to set sail and offer emission free food transportation, carrying organic (or traditionally crafted) products like olive oil, cacao beans, wine and rum across the ocean while raising awareness about the pollution created by the modern shipping industry.
A message backed by the example that Fairtransport sets, it's a proper swashbuckling way of promoting a greater level of sustainability throughout the food world. Invest in the business and you can even become part-owner of a ship for yourself.
Lucas Oakeley is editorial assistant at Foodism and The Foodist column author. Follow him on Twitter: @lucasoakeley. Find out more at fairtransport.eu
