Over half the vegetables and 90 percent of the fruit we eat in the UK is imported from around the world. The term Food Miles (the distance our food travels from field plate) was coined to describe the environmental impact of the food we eat. It is estimated that the average distance the food in our shopping trolleys has travelled is 2200km. In an ideal world, we would only eat food grown ourselves, or at least grown locally. In reality, there is much more to consider…

Fruit Fly-ing
The most environmentally destructive method of transporting food is by air. Air freight makes up about 1 percent of the total amount of UK food miles, but contributes 11 percent to the total C02 emissions from UK food transport. Transporting our freight by plane produces up to 177 times more greenhouse gases than transporting the same weight of produce by ship. Sadly, air freight is the fastest growing method of moving our food around.

So do we simply stop buying food transported by plane? That may sound like a relatively easy solution to this problem, but there are other things to consider. The £200 million worth of fresh fruit and vegetables imported into the UK from africa supports over 1 million people. Many of these producers are dependant on exporting by air, so stopping it would have a major impact.

Transport by lorry
The food miles do not stop once our imported food arrives in the UK. Over 25 percent of the total mileage heavy good vehicles clock up on our roads is from transporting food. A 2005 report suggested that the resulting congestion, accidents and pollution from this costs the UK economy £9 billion a year! All these lorries carrying our food also produce nearly 30 percent of UK C02 emissions. Food produced in the field right next door to your local supermarket would still have to travel many miles to a distribution warehouse, and then back to the supermarket to be sold.

Cars
Thats right, even your trip to the supermarket in your car adds to the food miles of the food you buy. It is thought that trips to and from shops produces 2 millions tonnes of C02 each year in the UK.

Buy locally
Buying locally produced food is the easiest way to reduce food miles. But as mentioned above, even that introduces its own problems. Out of season Strawberries grown locally, but in a heated greenhouse, could actually be worse for the environment than buying strawberries imported from Italy, for example.

“A study carried out at Lincoln University in New Zealand concluded that rearing and distributing British lamb produces more CO2 emissions than importing the meat 11,000 miles by sea. New Zealand farmers use more renewable energy and less fertiliser, so agriculture is much more energy efficient than the UK’s, making up for the food miles. “  Source: bbc food

Some food mile facts:

- In the UK, our food travels an amazing 30 billion kilometres each year.
- Food transport is responsible for the UK adding nearly 19 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year.
- Over 2 million tonnes of C02 is produced simply by cars travelling to and from shops.