Oh good, a carbon footprint label on my food to add to all the other labels. Shopping with small children is of course such a restful experience that I find I've plenty of time to pause and peruse the small essays written on each packet these days - no crotchety scrabbling and chucking in the trolley for me, oh no.
Nevertheless, the massive effort that Walkers has made to work out its carbon footprint should really be applauded. First of all - what a lot of work! I can't quite imagine how they did it, and feel a bit queasy about the lengthy discussions about how to divide the petrol used by the delivery lorries, and the electricity consumed in the factory, and whether you need to include the hand-dryer in the toilet - how many breaks are staff taking anyway? You would hope that while Walkers was making these calculations it might have spotted a few places they could cut back their energy consumption.
But secondly, applause is all the more merited because Walkers has now voluntarily joined the gang of those who set themselves standards and then get shot at by the media. I will be among those taking aim, of course, but feel I want to give them a gentlemanly handshake first. Alright chaps?
Potshots are due because finally, although the small figure of 75g on the side of the packet reveals absolutely sod-all to most of us, a couple of days ago Newsnight came up with a much better way of making it real: they got a scientist to blow up a black balloon which would illustrate the volume of this much carbon. It was surprisingly big. In fact it was about the size of a watermelon, dwarfing the small crisp packet being held up in front of it. It was a horrible floating black glob of all the stuff we're belching into the atmosphere, and if just one crisp packet can produce something that size, then what on earth is the rest of our lives producing?
The balloons could be a potential Turkey Twizzler moment - a moment when the reality of what we're doing to the planet really begins to be driven home. Poor old Walkers, though. I doubt that's what they planned.
