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Food Miles Might Not be Always Bad

These days, conscientious customers are buying locally grown vegetables and fruits. This is owing to the concept of Food Miles. The idea of food miles is simple - buy food products that have travelled the least distance. Why is this important? Because the less a product travels, the less fossil fuel consumed owing to its transport, and the less ecological damage, goes the logic. According to the British National Consumer Council, about 10% of CO2 emissions come from transport of air-freighted goods.

Whether food miles are good or bad might not be such a simple question however. For instance, the "buy only local" policy might harm farmers in Africa who are already poor and impoverished. Some advocate a fair miles principle that factors in additional considerations, and not just a simplistic food miles principle. To drive home the point, one expert points out that cutting out products from sub-Saharan Africa would reduce Britain's overall contribution to global CO2 emissions by just 0.1% . With that being the case, is it worth the poverty that could cause to the poor African farmers?

Not an easy question to answer, is it?

Labels: agriculture, ecology