Food should be labelled with its country of origin. Choosing food from sources nearer to where you buy it reduces the carbon footprint of the food – the “food miles”. Ideally buy food which has been produced in your local area, then you are supporting your local community.

If you shop at specialist food shops or farmer’s markets you are much more likely to be buying seasonal food, as well as supporting the local economy and reducing your food miles. A farmer will perhaps travel up to 50 miles to sell at a market close to you, whereas a supermarket may buy the food from the farmer at a lower price, transport it to a distribution centre, then send it back to the store for sale – perhaps hundreds of miles of transport.

There is an ongoing debate about flying in food, for example Kenyan beans, and flowers. It is argued for example that growing flowers in hothouses in Holland uses more energy than flying them in from Africa, and also benefits the African communities which desperately need the income. The Soil Association has recently published a report, in which they recommend that air freight continue to be permitted under the organic standard, providing the production of the food “delivers genuine social and development benefits”, as well as meeting their Ethical Trade Standards.

Supermarkets are the worst culprits for sourcing food from overseas, when it could be obtained in the UK. For example they have been responsible for the considerable decline in the UK apple industry during the 1990’s, due to sourcing apples from around the world including the southern hemisphere.

The food you eat can contribute around 50% of your annual personal CO2 emissions, without you even being aware of it. However, it is estimated that in may cases only a small proportion of this figure (perhaps as little as 2%) is due to food miles: other factors include processing, storage and packaging – just when you thought you knew what to do to reduce your carbon footprint it got all complicated again!