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Food miles is the distance food is from the time of its making until it reaches the consumer. Food miles are one factor used when testing the Environmentalism impact of food, such as the carbon footprint of the food.
Some scholars believe that an increase in the distance food travels is due to the globalization of trade; the focus of food supply bases into fewer, larger districts; drastic changes in delivery patterns; the increase in processed and packaged foods; and making fewer trips to the supermarket. These make a small part of the greenhouse gas emissions created by food; 83% of overall emissions of CO2 are in production phases.
Several studies compare emissions over the entire food cycle, including production, consumption, and transport. These include estimates of food-related emissions of greenhouse gas 'up to the farm gate' versus 'beyond the farm gate'. In the UK, for example, agricultural-related emissions may account for approximately 40% of the overall Food system (including retail, packaging, fertilizer manufacture, and other factors), whereas greenhouse gases emitted in transport account for around 12% of overall food-chain emissions.Garnett 2011, Food Policy
A 2022 study suggests global food miles emissions are 3.5–7.5 times higher than previously estimated, with transport accounting for about 19% of total food-system emissions, albeit shifting towards plant-based diets remains substantially more important.
The concept of "food miles" has been criticised, and food miles are not always correlated with the actual environmental impact of food production. In comparison, the percentage of total energy used in home food preparation is 26% and in food processing is 29%, far greater than transportation.John Hendrickson, "Energy use in the U.S. Food System: A summary of existing research and analysis." Sustainable Farming (Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec), vol. 7, no. 4. Fall 1997.
Although it was never intended as a complete measure of environmental impact, it has come under attack as an ineffective means of finding the true environmental impact. For example, a DEFRA report in 2005 undertaken by researchers at AEA Technology Environment, entitled The Validity of Food Miles as an Indicator of Sustainable Development, included findings that "the direct environmental, social and economic costs of food transport are over £9 billion each year, and are dominated by congestion."
He explains its history in this article Tim Lang (2006). 'locale / global (food miles)', Slow Food (Bra, Cuneo Italy), 19, May 2006, pp. 94–97 at the Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment (SAFE) AllianceThe SAFE Alliance merged with the National Food Alliance in 2000 to become Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming http://www.sustainweb.org/. Professor Tim Lang chaired Sustain from 1999 to 2005. and first appeared in print in a report, "The Food Miles Report: The Dangers of Long-Distance Food Transport", researched and written by Angela Paxton.Paxton, A (1994). "The Food Miles Report: The Dangers of Long-Distance Food Transport"
/ref>Iles, A. (2005). "Learning in sustainable agriculture: Food miles and missing objects". Environmental Values, 14, 163–83
Overview
The concept of food miles is part of the broader issue of sustainability which deals with a large range of environmental, social and economic issues, including local food. The term was coined by Tim Lang (now Professor of Food Policy, City University, London) who says: "The point was to highlight the hidden ecological, social and economic consequences of food production to consumers in a simple way, one which had objective reality but also connotations."Tim Lang (2006). 'locale / global (food miles)', Slow Food (Bra, Cuneo Italy), 19, May 2006, p.94-97 The increased distance traveled by food in developed countries was caused by the globalization of food trade, which increased by four times since 1961.Erik Millstone and Tim Lang, The Atlas of Food, Earthscan, London, 1963, p. 60. Food that is transported by road produces more carbon emissions than any other form of transported food. Road transport produces 60% of the world's food transport carbon emissions. Air transport produces 20% of the world's food transport carbon emissions. Rail and sea transport produce 10% each of the world's food transport carbon emissions.
Wal-Mart publicized a press releasing that stated food travelled before it reaches customers. The statistics aroused public concern about food miles. According to Jane Black, a food writer who covers food politics, the number was derived from a small database. The 22 terminal markets from which the data was collected handled 30% of the United States produce.
Some iOS and Android apps allow consumers to get information about food products, including nutritional information, product origin, and the distance the product travelled from its production location to the consumer. Such apps include OpenLabel, Glow, and Open Food Facts. These apps may rely on barcode scanning. Also, smartphones can scan a product's QR code, after which the browser opens up showing the production location of the product (i.e. Farm to Fork project, ...).
However, exports from poor countries do not always benefit poor people. Unless the product has a Fairtrade certification label, or a label from another robust and independent scheme, food exports might make a bad situation worse. Only a very small percentage of what importers pay will end up in the hands of plantation workers.C. Dolan, J. Humphrey, and C. Harris-Pascal, "Value Chains and Upgrading: The Impact of U.K. Retailers on the Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Industry in Africa," Institute of Development Studies Working Paper 96, University of Sussex, 1988. Wages are often very low and working conditions bad and sometimes dangerous. Sometimes the food grown for export takes up land that had been used to grow food for local consumption, so local people can go hungry.Action Aid is one of many organisations drawing attention to this problem and campaigning to improve this situation - http://www.actionaid.org.uk
According to German researchers, the food miles concept misleads consumers because the size of transportation and production units is not taken into account. Using the methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in accordance with ISO 14040, entire supply chains providing German consumers with food were investigated, comparing local food with food of European and global provenance. Large-scale agriculture reduces unit costs associated with food production and transportation, leading to increased efficiency and decreased energy use per kilogram of food by economies of scale. Research from the Justus Liebig University Giessen show that small food production operations may cause even more environmental impact than bigger operations in terms of energy use per kilogram, even though food miles are lower. Case studies of lamb, beef, wine, apples, fruit juices and pork show that the concept of food miles is too simple to account for all factors of food production. Schlich E, Fleissner U: The Ecology of Scale. Assessment of Regional Energy Turnover and Comparison with Global Food. Int J LCA 10 (3) 219-223:2005.Schlich E: Energy Economics and the Ecology of Scale in the Food Business. In: Caldwell PG and Taylor EV (editors): New Research on Energy Economics. Nova Science Publishers Hauppauge NY:2008.
A 2006 research report from the Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit at Lincoln University, New Zealand counters claims about food miles by comparing total energy used in food production in Europe and New Zealand, taking into account energy used to ship the food to Europe for consumers.Saunders, C; Barber, A; Taylor, G, Food Miles – Comparative Energy/Emissions Performance of New Zealand's Agriculture Industry (2006). Research Report No. 285. Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand. The report states, "New Zealand has greater production efficiency in many food commodities compared to the UK. For example New Zealand agriculture tends to apply fewer (which require large amounts of energy to produce and cause significant emissions) and animals are able to grazing year round outside eating grass instead of large quantities of brought-in compound feed such as . In the case of Dairy product and sheep meat production NZ is by far more energy efficient, even including the transport cost, than the UK, twice as efficient in the case of dairy, and four times as efficient in case of sheep meat. In the case of , NZ is more energy-efficient even though the energy embodied in capital items and other inputs data was not available for the UK."
Other researchers have contested the claims from New Zealand. Professor Gareth Edwards-Jones has said that the arguments "in favour of New Zealand apples shipped to the UK is probably true only or about two months a year, during July and August, when the carbon footprint for locally grown fruit doubles because it comes out of cool stores."'Food miles' minor element of carbon footprint, http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=40471 . See also a range of publications by Professor Edwards-Jones and a team of researchers at Bangor University, http://www.bangor.ac.uk/senrgy/staff/edwards.php.en
Studies by Dr. Christopher Weber et al. of the total carbon footprint of food production in the U.S. have shown transportation to be of minor importance, compared to the carbon emissions resulting from pesticide and fertilizer production, and the fuel required by farm and food processing equipment.
/ref> That figure includes the clearing of land to feed and graze the animals. Clearing land of trees, and cultivation, are the main drivers of farming emissions. Deforestation eliminates carbon sinks, accelerating the process of climate change. Cultivation, including the use of synthetic fertilisers, releases greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide. Nitrogen fertiliser is especially demanding of fossil fuels, as producing a tonne of it takes 1.5 tonnes of oil.
Meanwhile, it is increasingly recognised that meat and Dairy product are the largest sources of food-related emissions. The UK's consumption of meat and dairy products (including imports) accounts for about 8% of national greenhouse gas emissions related to consumption.
According to a study by engineers Christopher Weber and H. Scott Matthews of Carnegie Mellon University, of all the greenhouse gases emitted by the food industry, only 4% comes from transporting the food from producers to retailers. The study also concluded that adopting a Vegetarianism, even if the vegetarian food is transported over very long distances, does far more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than does eating a locally grown diet. Food miles are less important to environment than food choices, study concludes, Jane Liaw, special to Mongabay, June 2, 2008 They also concluded that "Shifting less than one day per week's worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food." In other words, the amount of red meat consumption is much more important than food miles.
/ref> Some are more robust than others but, at the moment, there is no easy way to tell which ones are thorough, independent and reliable, and which ones are just marketing hype.
Even a full lifecycle analysis accounts only for the environmental effects of food production and consumption. However, it is one of the widely agreed three pillars of sustainable development, namely environmental, social and economic.World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, (1987). Oxford University Press. Often known as the Brundtland report, after the Chair of the Commission, Gro Harlem Brundtland.
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