The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
Cars, lorries and planes are emitting a record 18 million tons of carbon dioxide a year transporting food around Britain, new figures from the Government showed yesterday. A jump of 6 per cent was recorded in the number of "food miles" by road and air in 2004, according to figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The figures will heighten concern about the damage done by the supermarkets' policy of flying in products like sweetcorn from Thailand, prawns from Ecuador, or apples from New Zealand. They are also a blow to the Government's commitment - made in its Food Industry Sustainability Strategy earlier this year - to cut the social and environmental costs of food miles on 1990 levels by 20 per cent by 2012. Environmental campaigners said the figures showed ministers should be doing more to curb emissions of carbon dioxide (Co2), which causes climate change, which has been blamed for this summer's extreme heat. Food miles are clocked up by air freighting produce often thousands of miles to the UK, trundling lorries round the motorway network and by customers travelling to and from shops. Amid the rise of the supermarket chains and the all-year round stocking of fruit and vegetable varieties, Co2 emissions from food miles have soared in the past decade. They rose by 15 per cent from 1992 to 2002 and by a 4 per cent between 2002 and 2004, according to Defra.
A jump of 6 per cent was recorded in the number of "food miles" by road and air in 2004, according to figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The figures will heighten concern about the damage done by the supermarkets' policy of flying in products like sweetcorn from Thailand, prawns from Ecuador, or apples from New Zealand. They are also a blow to the Government's commitment - made in its Food Industry Sustainability Strategy earlier this year - to cut the social and environmental costs of food miles on 1990 levels by 20 per cent by 2012.
Environmental campaigners said the figures showed ministers should be doing more to curb emissions of carbon dioxide (Co2), which causes climate change, which has been blamed for this summer's extreme heat.
Food miles are clocked up by air freighting produce often thousands of miles to the UK, trundling lorries round the motorway network and by customers travelling to and from shops.
Amid the rise of the supermarket chains and the all-year round stocking of fruit and vegetable varieties, Co2 emissions from food miles have soared in the past decade. They rose by 15 per cent from 1992 to 2002 and by a 4 per cent between 2002 and 2004, according to Defra.
Food miles cost the country £9bn every year in delays, pollution and road accidents. Lorries did 5.5 million miles in food miles in 2004, according to Defra, while cars did 4.2 billion. Air travel was responsible for 17 million miles but it has been rising fast. It rose by 136 per cent from 1992 to 2002. Between 2002 and 2004, it rose 31 per cent. Some products are flown 12,000 miles to supermarkets. In a survey last year, Greenpeace found two-thirds of apples on sale at supermarket had been air-freighted from abroad - at the height of the British apple growing season.
One complaint: not a word about Europe. (For example, British apple-growing season = European apple-growing season). You once again get the impression the UK is a flying island that is not part of the EU.
Well, so tax air fuel.
If you go to google Defra and "food mile" you'll find a recent report showing that "food miles" are an inadequate indicator.
How about tonnes, mile-tonnes and miles?
Finally, in the vein of our biofuels calculation, if the UK wanted to be self-sufficient in food, would they have enough land? Nothing is 'mere'. — Richard P. Feynman
According to gov statistics the UK is 60% self-sufficient - a much higher percentage than I was expecting.
I see your point about the food-miles unit. Not much use.
And I don't like european dessert apples. I don't seem to be alone in this. Golden delicious are anything but delicious, so bland it's hard to object to them unless you actually wanted fruit that tastes of something. keep to the Fen Causeway
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 14 41 comments
by gmoke - Jan 22
by Oui - Jan 10 59 comments
by Oui - Jan 21 6 comments
by IdiotSavant - Jan 15 20 comments
by Oui - Jan 20 31 comments
by Oui - Jan 20 4 comments
by Oui - Jan 16 8 comments
by Oui - Jan 216 comments
by Oui - Jan 2031 comments
by Oui - Jan 204 comments
by Oui - Jan 172 comments
by Oui - Jan 168 comments
by gmoke - Jan 16
by IdiotSavant - Jan 1520 comments
by Oui - Jan 1432 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 1441 comments
by Oui - Jan 1389 comments
by Oui - Jan 1177 comments
by Oui - Jan 1059 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 877 comments
by Oui - Jan 772 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 710 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 668 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 611 comments
by Oui - Jan 659 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 230 comments