WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS?

The 21st century is increasingly being challenged by environmental sustainability where as humans must face the environmental, social, and ethical implications of their attitudes, choices, and behavior. Human activity is causing global warming, altering ecosystems and the Earth’s capacity to sustain life.

A main factor causing this is humans’ consumption of food. Food has evolved from a basic necessity to a product produced to gain year-round availability, profit, and consumer loyalty, while many areas of the world have limiting access to this food.

Food travels long distances by HGVs, LGVs, air, and ship to maintain a competitive market in the food-trading industry – all at the expense of our quality of life.

London's food economy accounts for £1.6billion of consumer spending.

London has a huge diversity of food cultures representing 60 cuisines.

The food that we eat accounts for 41% of London's ecological footprint.

Food system = farmers, freight companies, restaurants, consumers, multinationals.

(1) Transporting food large distances uses a lot of fuel, whether it travels by lorry or plane. That means more carbon dioxide emissions and more global warming.

(2) The further food has to travel, the longer it spends in transit. That means vitamins are lost and nutritional values inevitably decline.

(3) As time goes by, a greater and greater proportion of UK food comes in from abroad. Air transport accounts for 1% of food miles, but 11% of food mile CO2 emissions.

(4) If all foods were sourced from within 20km of where they were consumed, the UK would save £2.1bn in environmental and congestion costs.

(5) Food produced on the other side of the world may be just as healthy and welfare friendly as the same food produced down the road, but it’s harder to check whether that’s the case.

(6) 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. Each year, the average UK adult travels about 135 miles by car to shop for food, more often than not making trips to large, out-of-town supermarkets.
http://www.fwi.co.uk/gr/foodmiles/facts.html

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Should we cut down on food miles?

After air and water, food is the most essential resource people require to sustain themselves. Yet the way the food system provides food often severely damages the health of the biosphere.

The global food system has become such a dominant force shaping the surface of this planet and its ecosystems that we can no longer achieve sustainability without revamping the food system.

At the same time sustainable food systems provide great hope for building a sustainable future—a future in which all can lead satisfying lives within the means of the biosphere. http://www.foodroutes.org/hottopic.jsp?id=3