Food footprint

“More than ever it matters that we know and understand about our food, where it comes from, how it grows and who grows it. It matters because not only does it affect everyone on the planet, it affects the planet itself.”
Michael Morpurgo

Food is one of our most basic needs but it is very unfairly distributed among the world’s people. Some countries have too much food resulting in problems of obesity and overweight, while other countries have food shortages with people suffering from hunger, malnutrition and famine.

People do not go hungry because of a global shortage of food. There is enough produced in the world to feed everyone; so much food in fact that in richer countries a lot of food ends up in the bin! Hunger and malnutrition are instead a result of a lack of land to grow food or a shortage of money to buy it. 

Much of the food we eat in developed countries like Britain, Western Europe and the USA, is imported. However, this trade in food has its problems.

In order for us to have the wide choice of foods we take for granted, much of our food is grown and supplied by farmers and producers in the developing world. This means that countries in the developed world have a large food footprint, extending beyond their own available land and using land that could be growing food to feed hungry people. And the fact that we throw so much of our food away makes our footprint even larger. 

 Food miles

Importing food results in an increase in food miles. This is the distance food travels from where it is grown to where it is eaten; the distance between field and plate. Before imported food reaches us it has to travel great distances by air, sea, rail and road. This transportation involves pollution and in particular the release of carbon dioxide, the main gas responsible for global warming. 

The growth of supermarkets has caused a drastic rise in food miles. A pint of milk or a crop of potatoes can be transported many miles to be packaged at a central depot and then sent many miles back to be sold near where they were produced in the first place.

Also, because of the way the food processing industry works, ingredients travel around the country from factory to factory, before they make their way to the shops. Then there’s imported produce. The amount of food being flown into the UK doubled in the 1990s and is predicted to rise further each year.

Another reason for rising food miles are cheaper labour costs in other countries. For example, some British fish is now sent to China – where the cost of employing people is much lower – for processing, then sent back to the UK to be sold.

It's difficult to be sure how far our food has travelled before it reaches our plates. A food’s country of origin may be on the label but it’s generally impossible to tell how far the food has travelled and by what means. The means of transport - as well as the distance - is important. For example, a long journey by boat has less environmental impact than a shorter one by road.

Consumers are also directly responsible for increased food miles. We now travel further for our shopping and use the car more often to do it.

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