Food miles, which consumers are increasingly taking notice of, are not an accurate way of judging the total environmental impact. For example, fruit and vegetables trucked in from Spain could actually have a lower carbon footprint than those grown in UK greenhouses which use up lots of energy for heating.
Dr Andrea Collins from the Brass waste and resources research centre at Cardiff University and Dr Ruth Fairchild, a nutritional analyst at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, agree that the food miles concept is too simplistic. They argue that their recent research into the environmental impact of food points towards a better system of "ecological footprint" analysis. This measures a food's impact in "global hectares", the notional land area needed to provide the resources to produce it.
The research concluded that, on average, only around 2% of the environmental impact of food comes from transporting it from farm to shop.
Overall, around 20% of the UK's overall greenhouse gas emissions are related to food consumption. The footprint of an organic diet versus a non-organic diet and found that switching to organic brought a 22.9% reduction in the food footprint.
Read more in an article by Julie Ferry at the Guardian
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