http://environment.independent.co.uk/lifestyle/article2936712.ece

Chef Peter Gordon writing in today's Independent takes aim at the current food miles fad. Money quotes.....

"The phrase is used to promote the push for seasonal, regional, British food. It's always mentioned as the primary reason for boycotting imported foods – because their global transport is supposedly destroying the planet. ...."

Gordon then itemizes what a local diet really means :

No more ginger pound-cake, or Cornish saffron bread. No more espressos on your way to work, or champagne to celebrate the wonderful moments in your life. In fact, there'll be no more cups of tea in the afternoon and maybe, for those purists on the English mainland, no Irish whiskeys on a winter's day! All these things are brought in from afar, as well as everyday ingredients such as cinnamon, olive oil, avocados and maple syrup. Worcestershire sauce, containing tamarind, has food miles attached to it. Whatever, the purists would say – ban them all."

What's amazing to me is the wilful ignorance of the food faddists. Global trading isn't new, as food faddists try to insist, but as old as the hills. Without the Roman empire, Europe would never have met the chicken -- the egg being the best fodder for the travelling soldier. Without the Venetian empire's fleet, we wouldn't have the Eastern spices that created the cuisine of Europe. The British empire was a vast global market, and Britain depended on imported food for its existence. Before World War II, Britain imported eggs from Poland - and China. It had to. It wasn't able to grow enough food for its population.

Gordon underlines that things aren't that different now in Britain...."...take the humble onion. In order for the UK to keep the domestic market supplied year round without importing, it would need to grow huge acreages of them (requiring vast tracts of land that just don't exist) and then keep them in chillers for up to nine months (powered by electricity produced mostly from the burning of fossil fuels). Of course, we could all simply stop using onions for three or four months instead, but that's not really a viable option.

Considering the recent summer floods, the crops they destroyed and the number of animals lost in recent times to BSE, foot-and-mouth and bird flu, Britain is in even less of a position to rely solely on domestic food production and will have to turn to imported produce to keep itself fed this year. Globally, a macabre combination of floods and droughts, pests and viruses are rearranging our ability to produce a reliable supply of food.Every foodstuff has a carbon footprint, which is the only honest way to gauge environmental impact. However, this is often confused with food miles. Food miles are simply the distance the product has travelled to get to you – even a potato has food miles. A carbon footprint is measured by the amount of CO2 produced, and the total energy used, to get the product to market. According to a report from the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs in 2005, food miles are an inadequate indicator of sustainability.


It is also infuriating to hear that the Soil Association is thinking of removing the term "organic" from any organic foods flown into Britain. Perhaps we should also stop calling Argentinean beef "beef" , purely because it's imported. At some point this subtle manipulation of the English language, used purely in order to support a biased, protectionist and perhaps slightly xenophobic agenda, really has to stop. Organic has a meaning, defined before air travel (let alone air freight) existed, and air miles travelled shouldn't figure in that description. It has to be understood that the bulk of African organic farmers, mostly using renewable energy, will be disastrously affected by any restrictions placed on the export of their produce.



CO2 emissions and food

By Alastair Plumb

* The production of British lamb produces 2,850kg of CO2 per ton. New Zealand lamb shipped to Britain produces 690.

* Air-freighted food accounts for 0.1 per cent of food miles, but produces 13 per cent of CO2 emissions from food transport

* Sea-freight emissions are less that one-eightieth of those produced by air-freight. Road transport creates 7.6 times more emissions than sea freight does.

* A cheeseburger costs between 3.6 to 6.1kg of CO2 equivalent. According to statistics from Fast Food Nation, the average American will eat three cheeseburgers a week – producing up to 915kg of greenhouse gases a year.

* Food and drink only accounts for 5 per cent of the average person's carbon footprint, compared to 19 per cent from transport, and 9 per cent from power used in the home.