Retail therapy

Defra to tackle the real price of food We’re paying increasingly heavily for our food - in social and environmental costs. That’s the gist of a new report from Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) which wants industry, retailers and consumers to pay more attention to what’s involved in getting our food from where it’s grown to where we finally eat it. The government is now consulting on proposals to reduce the environmental and social impacts of food transport by 20% by 2012. The globalisation of the food industry, the centralisation of supermarket distribution networks which rely on heavy goods vehicles, and the seemingly inexorable rise of out-of-town shopping, all conspired to push up the overall carbon dioxide emissions from food transport by 12% between 1992 and 2002, equivalent to 1.8% of the country’s total CO2 emissions. The report even puts a monetary cost on the environmental and social impact of food transport: a cool £9 billion in congestion, road accidents, climate change, noise and air pollution. That’s about a third of the gross value added of the agricultural and food and drink manufacturing sectors put together. For consumers just starting to get the hang of ‘food miles’, the report’s message is somewhat complex. Food miles are actually too simple a concept to sum up the environmental impact of a product, it says, which also depends on factors such as the form of transport used and the method of food production adopted. Shoppers could be surprised to learn that it can take less energy to import tomatoes from Spain by road and sea than to produce them in heated greenhouses in the UK outside the summer months. Rather a lot of information to fit on a label… What to do? Defra says the first step is to encourage the industry to reduce its food miles through “transport efficiency” - for example, by ensuring cleaner vehicles, introducing more rail freight and improving distribution logistics. It suggests too, more emphasis on sourcing more locally produced food. Lord Bach, the food and farming minister, wants consumers as well as the industry “to realise the impact of what they are doing”. But is the report right to present this as an issue of consumer choice? Dan Keech thinks not. As sustainable food chain officer for the campaign group Sustain, he blames “poor planning”, which has allowed so many out-of-town supermarkets to be built, for the increase in the ‘consumer’ food miles alluded to in the report. He’s also concerned that the government will rely on big supermarkets to “bring the biggest change”, and argues that it should instead start “rebuilding local food logistics” and infrastructure - like reintroducing street markets and local abattoirs…” - Hannah Bullock The Validity of Food Miles as an Indicator of Sustainable Development is available to download at http://statistics.defra. gov.uk/esg/reports/foodmiles

20 September 2005

Hannah Bullock