Food miles

[Barry]

Did anybody see "Crop to Shop" on BBC1 last Wednesday at 19.30?
One statistic leapt out from the screen: 25% of all carbon emissions in the UK are associated with the movement of food around the country! If there was ever an argument for growing your own that's it!!!

[peter]

There are other important points to take from such a statistic and I did not watch the programme refered to.

Financial economies seem very often lead to non-renewable resource wastage in transport.

Picking veg in Norfolk or Lincolnshire, packing it into a plastic sleeve and straight into the crate it will be presented for sale in, then sending a lorryload of crates to a distribution wharehouse in Harlow (Essex) and then sending a smaller number of crates on to seperate supermarkets can mean the veg could end up on sale back at a supermarket next door to the field it was grown in. It does mean minimum manual handling, which keeps the cost down.
Animals used to be taken to a local slaughterhouse, whereas now animals from the Lake District could be transported down to Cornwall to be slaughtered and the carcass then processed, before the meat ended up back at the supermarket in Whitehaven, hardly a humane treatment for live animals travelling the length of the country to be killed.

The trouble is, how can the alternative solution use less energy in travel and cost the supermarket no more money than the current solution?

They would argue that sourcing all cabbages from two growers in Lincolnshire keeps the production cost down compared to twenty or more growers across the country.

[glallotments]

What about growing potatoes in Egypt. They buy seed potatoes from Scotland, peat from Ireland and use ground water of which there is a finite supply just so our supermarkets can boast new potatoes out of season.

It was on one of the Jimmy's Supermarket Secrets episodes!

Madness

[alan refail]

One statistic leapt out from the screen: 25% of all carbon emissions in the UK are associated with the movement of food around the country!

I didn't see the program - but I do wonder where the statistic came from!
According to official figures HERE the CO2 emisions for all transport was less than 25% over the fifteen years from 1990.

Another slightly cynical question: how many of us who bear food miles in mind actually refuse to buy oranges, tea, coffee, rice, etc? Not really grow-at-home crops!

[WestHamRon]

What about growing potatoes in Egypt. They buy seed potatoes from Scotland, peat from Ireland and use ground water of which there is a finite supply just so our supermarkets can boast new potatoes out of season.

It was on one of the Jimmy's Supermarket Secrets episodes!

Madness

I agree, I've never liked New Potatoes.

[Barry]

Egyptian new potatoes are tasteless in my opinion. However, it is hardly surprising, since they are indeed grown in sand and fed on water and nutrients. It was bizarre to see a crop of spuds literally growing in the sand; it was almost surreal, albeit very clever, too!!

[Johnboy]

Hi Barry,
As you will probably realise this topic could run almost forever but I too am sceptical of the statistics used but that apart there are a few things that need to be pointed out.
Peter mentions the transportation of livestock over great distances to abattoirs in far distant from the production area. It has been government policy to get rid of smaller abattoirs now for many years. The restrictions placed on abattoirs have been such that the smaller ones simply could not raise the necessary capital to carry out the vital alterations and in many instances when they have managed to get the capital the Local Authority has rejected the necessary alterations. One of the restrictions was that there has to be a Vet on the premises when slaughter takes place and the Vet must have a great many facilities, Office, Shower Room etc which I might add the staff actually doing the work do not enjoy. The cost of a Vet to a small abattoir is simply not affordable but a single Vet only has to be present at one of the enormous slaughter houses. So the costs are the same for the small local slaughter house.
The large transporters can normally carry up to 200 sheep and there must be a large facility to cope with high quantities these are very thin on the ground with comparison to the amount of livestock slaughtered.
This means that programming slaughter must take into account if there is a place locally than can cope and this is really why great distances are covered. It is in the interest of the person buying the carcases to cover the shortest route and sometimes this simply doesn't work out to plan.
So I think that the successive governments over the years have brought about the dilemma that livestock producers are in. Governments seem to think that we all have to make savings and somehow they are exempt.
JB.

[glallotments]

Another slightly cynical question: how many of us who bear food miles in mind actually refuse to buy oranges, tea, coffee, rice, etc? Not really grow-at-home crops!

I'm not anti buying fruit etc and other products that can't be produced in the UK as in many ways the foreign economies depend on being able to export their crops but it seems stupid to grow something in a country that isn't really suitable for its production and then ship it to a country that can have a plentiful supply all year round grown in its own fields.

[Nature's Babe]

Gallotments that is sensible, there is a difference with buying a few luxury items which we can't produce and importing what our local farmers could produce. My local supermarket is an independent one and buys local from local farmers, farmers markets are another good source of local food.
If you want to see the real costs of food and fuel emissions see the following BBC Video, A Farm for the Future, world supply of oil is in decline and we need to plan ahead for the time when it runs out in 10 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xShCEKL-mQ8