Farming Matters!
'Food for Thought'

Many of us consider the needs of the developing world by buying ‘Fair Trade’ gifts and cards, as well as tea, coffee and chocolate etc.. Can we think too about ‘Fair Trade’ for our own farmers and also about the distances our dinner travels to reach us. All too often our food is sourced from the cheapest producer, regardless of the distance it then has to travel, forcing down prices paid to farmers worldwide and contributing to global warming.

On average food produced in the UK travels 350 miles by road before it reaches our plates. Buying local reduces transport costs and encourages local producers as well as helping to combat global warming. Local speciality foods (such as Wensleydale cheese) processed locally need to be traded nationally, just as we need to import bananas, citrus fruit, coffee, tea, nuts etc. which we cannot produce ourselves. Cauliflowers, however, do not need to go from the south west to Lincolnshire for packaging, nor milk to Essex for processing. The processors claim that this is the cheapest method, but that does not factor in the hidden costs of transport in the effect on the environment

It has been calculated that transport energy costs can be compared as follows:-
1 kilo of goods transported for 1 mile:- by lorry consumes 0.2 mj (megajoules); by ship - 1.0mj; by air - 26.0mj. So:-

• a kilo of beans, sprouts or plums travelling 20 miles by lorry consumes 4mj;
• a kilo of broccoli or strawberries travelling 700 miles from Spain consumes 140mj;
• a kilo of lamb or apples by sea from New Zealand - 11,700 miles uses 11,700mj and
• a kilo of mange tout from Zambia 500 miles by air uses 130,000mj.

In addition there is the cost in human lives. How is it that we can buy irrigated crops of mange tout and french beans from Zambia while there is no water for their own staple crops which will lead to food shortages and possibly starvation there?

• What are we doing to the people of countries like Zambia?
• What are we doing to our own farmers by buying unnecessarily from abroad?
• What are we doing for our children and grandchildren, as we burn up the world’s resources and destroy its atmosphere, by moving food around unnecessarily?

The true cost of ‘Food Miles’ is rarely taken into consideration as we think of planning our meals. This year let us make it one of our considerations, alongside Fair Trade for all, as part of our Christian concern for our world and its people. Let us consider buying local as far as possible, using seasonal produce that has not travelled miles for processing or packaging. Let us ensure that the farmer receives a fair return for the product. Let us buy ‘Fair Trade’ tea, coffee, chocolate, nuts etc, so that our brothers and sisters in the developing world can also ‘shop local’ for their daily needs.

Terry and Valerie Brighton, March 2005

More about Food Miles and Local Food can be found at:-
'Food for Thought'_2002 - Fair Trade and Milk Miles
Farming Matters - Local Food
2020 Vision for Rural Britain
National 'Don't Shop at Supermarkets' Day
Churches response to the Curry Report
Countryside Matters!_Archive 2002