I don't see the problem with wrapping each individual fruit with plastic. It's the same reason they wrap cucumbers. It's one of those things that seems insane but actually leads to way less spoilage.
It's simply not necessary. Especially with fruit that have a thick peel that you are not going to eat anyway (oranges), it's already a perfect natural protection.
It depends on where the fruit is grown. If it’s local, sure, but many are trucked or flown from long distances burning a lot of fossil fuels. There could maybe be a distance the fruit comes from and an increased rate of spoilage in the humid air that makes plastic wrap at least neutral with letting it rot. But my random guess is no one is doing that calculation, they are just worried about keeping their hotel looking nice.
Transport is a small contributor to emissions. For most food products, it accounts for less than 10%, and it’s much smaller for the largest GHG emitters. In beef from beef herds, it’s 0.5%.
Sure, we’re talking in the context of fruits and veggies being shrink wrapped to avoid spoilage specifically, not produce vs meat though.
In that article it correctly states that the cost of transportation is small across all food types including beef, but in the context of apples specifically it shows the cost of transportation is not only significant to the total cost of the apple, packaging costs aren’t even visible. So the idea that packaging it in shrink wrap to avoid spoilage and transport of more apples actually seems to make sense?
> packaging costs aren’t even visible. So the idea that packaging it in shrink wrap to avoid spoilage and transport of more apples actually seems to make sense?
a) that's per kilogram, and probably not with each apple packaged individually and in plastic
b) plastic is inexpensive, but its true cost is not reflected in its price due to externalities (and emissions are not the only one)
So ... it's not easy to answer. My point was that whether food is sourced locally or shipped (not flown) from afar may not be the main factor to consider.
