Off The Shelf #14: Miles Apart

We're disconnected from the sources of our food, and this is hurting the planet more than it has to.

Aug 07, 2022

Disclaimer: this isn’t an advert for M&S, although their bakery is awesome. It’s just a massive food delivery truck which I thought would suit this week’s topic.

Thanks for all your comments and ideas in response to last week’s roundup. I was overwhelmed by some of the private messages I received, and I’m glad to see this subject strikes a note with so many of you. Hearing these things gives me the energy to continue rambling. So you’re stuck with me for the foreseeable.

If you missed it last week, and you’d like to submit an idea for the newsletter in the coming weeks, feel free to reply directly, or leave a comment below. And if you like what you’re reading and haven’t yet shared it with anyone, why not help to grow the movement by getting a mate to subscribe?

ONTO THIS WEEK’S BUSINESS…

For the last few months, we’ve been going every Saturday to a farm in Radlett which has become a hub for all manner of local businesses: butcher, farm shop and deli, fishmonger, cafe… you get the idea. The main draw for us is the amazing Bagels and Schmear, which has become a runaway success in its first year of opening and is an inspiring example of true entrepreneurial spirit. Check them out. Their cookies, made from recycled bagels - are immense.

As part of the weekly bagel run, I often dip into the fruit and veg shop next door, which is stacked high with colourful and varied produce - huge aubergines and tomatoes, yellow courgettes, skull-sized mushrooms. It’s great, and I always feel a sense of satisfaction going there, as opposed to blitzing through the vegetable aisle in the supermarket on the way to the biscuits.

Shopping like this is satisfying because it feels like I’m contributing to a wholesome, local, seasonal economy. It all just looks so much more vibrant and fresh in there, and how cool is it that I’m buying fruit and veg that comes from this farm?

Steady on there.

After asking a few questions one week, I learned that lots of the stuff in there isn’t from that farm. Of course it isn’t. In fact, hardly any of it is. And some of it wasn’t even grown in the UK. This isn’t in any way a criticism of the shop - the quality of the produce in there is fantastic. It’s just a realisation that even in a farm shop, which tends to look and feel a lot more homely than a supermarket does, not everything is going to be ‘local’.

And how could it be? Lemons, kiwis, the ubiquitous avocado that is the preserve of the influencer generation: these things, to which we’re so accustomed, are not exactly what the UK is famed for producing.

Which means that we’re all going to be grappling at some point with the concept of ‘food miles’. The unpalatable idea that before it gets to you, your food may have been grown in one place (possible thousands of miles away), packaged in another place, delivered to a distribution centre somewhere else, taken on to a shop, then bought by you or delivered to your home. Clearly, this is going to cause emissions and pollution, involve extra packaging, refrigeration and transportation. Ultimately, the more food miles you finance, the less sustainable your diet. Right?

Well, that’s the popular perception. And it is grounded in truth. A recent study, published in the journal Nature Food, estimated that global food miles account for about 3 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions - about 6% of total global emissions. That’s significantly higher than previous estimates, because this study accounted for the food miles involved in the ‘upstream food supply chain’ too - in other words, the emissions during the production process, not just distribution.

Based on the report’s findings, there is clearly a case to be made that we should do what we can do reduce food miles as much as possible by buying locally. For a start, we could just assume that the most effective thing we can do is stop buying produce from abroad.

But there are some other interesting data points to come out of the study: what I found surprising was that of the 3 billion tons of emissions from food miles, the majority are actually caused by moving food around within, rather than between countries. This is because hardly any food moves around by air, and road transportation is more carbon-intensive than ships. According to the report, only 43% of total food mile emissions are attributable to international transportation. So in simplistic terms, even if every country was to entirely stop importing from abroad (and I can’t see that happening here given how good that avocado looks with the perpetua filter on Insta) we’d still be looking at a couple of billion tons of food mile emissions.

Assuming we do kick the smashed avo habit, what can we do to eliminate the remaining 1.7 billion tons caused by domestic transportation? In a utopia, it’s easy: we’d all be able to walk or cycle a quarter of a mile to our local farm, and we’d pick the freshest, most seasonal produce right from the ground, before strolling happily home with it in a paper bag. And if we absolutely had to entertain the use of transport, it would all be electrified and carbon neutral. Huge milk floats filled with carrots and courgettes, inbound to Waitrose and Tesco (see? This wasn’t just an ad for M&S).

Sadly, this isn’t the world in which we now live. Leaving the difficulties of electrifying large delivery vehicle fleets for another publication (any tech enthusiasts out there?), the fact is that today in the UK, we import almost half of our food from abroad. With a growing population, the challenge of producing enough food to feed ourselves based on current diets is only likely to intensify. And we certainly can’t do it all within a square mile of where we live. Not everybody lives in a region which is able to produce everything that’s in demand. Any city, for example, is going to need to bring in food from across the country to feed itself.

So, as a society, I think we’re going to have to put up with some food miles, which will cause some emissions. So what to do? Firstly, put it into context: the emissions caused by food miles are not as severe as those caused by other food-related activities, such as meat production and food waste. I would suggest we need to focus on minimising these, because this is really where we can make the most impact.

But with that said, as consumers, if we do want to tackle the food mile challenge, I think there are some small changes we can make individually. Below are my top tips, on which I’ll be challenging myself to act from now on:

🥩 When you do eat meat, buy it locally. Your butcher is your friend. Ask questions about where they get their meat from.
🥕 Find out which fruit and veg is most abundant in your region, and what’s available each season. Go and find a farm or a market gardener, and work out who they supply to. Better yet, find out if they sell direct to consumers onsite. You might uncover a hidden gem. Then tell your neighbours.
✅ When you can’t get stuff from down the road, or you simply don’t have the time or inclination, at least try to buy from within your own country. Look closely at labels in the supermarket - it’s easy to find the country of origin.
🥔 Just for fun - try and grow your own. Whether it’s a humble herb plant on the windowsill, a sprawling vegetable patch, or a bustling chicken coop. Send me your pictures and I will put up a prize for the wonkiest vegetable.
🍋 Enjoy the odd exotic treat and don’t sweat the food miles too much. Life isn’t really the same if you can’t enjoy a Sicilian lemon tart now and again.

By doing these things - essentially exercising moderation and being more deliberate in our thought process when it comes to food - I think we can get that 3 gigaton number down a little - even if it can’t get to zero. I do think there’s a certain allure to eating locally: if we can tell a story about where our food has come from, we are becoming better connected to our food system. To me, that just feels more wholesome and more natural and can only be a good thing.

And if we’re lucky enough to be able to buy food directly from the farm it’s grown - or even better, grow it ourselves - we’re going to be cutting down on plastic and pollution, and there are health benefits to doing so. Plus, we’re then supporting local enterprise. As a veteran of a few markets as a food trader myself, I know the impact that can have and the positive impact it has on a community.

How do you feel about food miles? Any tips that you’ve found have worked for you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Off The Shelf

Off The Shelf #14: Miles Apart

We're disconnected from the sources of our food, and this is hurting the planet more than it has to.

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