Discussion sheet
Sydney Food Fairness Alliance
working towards food security and sustainable food systems
The long journey of our well-travelled food
UNDERSTANDING FOOD MILES
The greater Kiwifruit from Italy, oranges from Brazil...
the distance THE ‘FOOD MILE’ is a measure of the distance food travels from where it is grown or raised to
where it is purchased by the consumer. Increasingly in Australia, supermarket shelves are stocked
food has with imported food and food products that have been hauled thousands of kilometres: kiwifruit
from Italy, oranges from Brazil. In the last four years Australia has had a 26 per cent increase in
travelled imports of fresh produce. Imports now total $300 million per year.
from Swedish systems ecologist Folke Gunther goes even further, suggesting that we need to be
concerned about all the ‘miles’ travelled in production as well as distribution — the distance
paddock to travelled by fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, fodder, veterinary supplies, containers, farm
plate, the machinery etc — in which case we take into account the entire industrial agriculture system,
not simply the distribution of food products.
greater the
and can reduce nutritional value as the
High costs, hidden costs
food contains fewer of the vitamins and
transport The food purchased in this globalised system
minerals that our bodies need for good
pollution is not ‘cheap’ — there are high costs for
health.2 Buying local food ensures fresher,
farmers, for our environment and for our
more nutritious food, often picked closer
and the health. In general, the greater the distance
to ripening time, and usually with fewer
greater the food has travelled from paddock to plate,
pesticides applied.
the greater the transport pollution and the
SOCIAL — Australians have little
impact on greater the impact on the health of people,
say in the farming practices of other
the health the land and the global climate.
countries — the levels of pesticide used
The
impacts
of
long
distance
food
may
and the wages and conditions of workers.
of people,
include:
Imported food can come from countries
the land and
with inadequate environment and health
ENVIRONMENTAL — freight,
standard and few regulations to protect
the global
especially by air and road, consumes large
workers from contamination.
quantities of fuel and energy and releases
climate.
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greenhouse gases which contribute to
global climate change. Add to this the
environmental impacts of packaging and
processing and the real costs of the weekly
shopping basket can be much greater than
people think.
HEALTH — long distance transport
increases the time from farm to fork
Agribusiness, trade agreements,
government subsidies
The current system of production and
distribution in the industrial agriculture of
globalised food pits small farmers all over the
world against each other.
This has depressed the farmer’s share of the
Produced by SYDNEY FOOD FAIRNESS ALLIANCE and FOOD FAIRNESS ILLAWARRA
Even imported food dollar with the profit being taken by
transport, marketing and processing by global
organic food corporations.
can have a Trade liberalisation is forcing small farmers
tremendous off the land as they attempt to compete with
subsidised food imports and big corporations
impact. A in the farming sector.
single Briton’s In Australia between 1986 and 1996,
the number of farms fell by 20 per cent
shopping basket — almost all of them less than 500 hectares
of 26 imported in size.4
organic products Globe-trotting food
could have To date, little research has been done on the
travelled food miles associated with products on sale
in Australia.
241,000km and
Measuring the full impacts of food can be
released as a complex task, however the Australian
much carbon Conservation Foundation lists the following
figures from overseas studies that reveal the
dioxide into true costs of the unsustainable practice of
the atmosphere globe-trotting food (www.acfonline.org.au):
In the USA, food for a typical meal has
as an average
travelled nearly 2100km but the figure is
much greater if the meal contains offfour bedroom
season fruits or vegetables. Australia may
household does
not be far behind this figure.
The energy consumed in food freight
through cooking
often outweighs the nutritional energy
meals for eight
in the food itself. It takes around 1000
kJ of energy to ship 170kJ worth of
months.
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strawberries from Chile to the USA.
Processed or multiple-ingredient food
products may accumulate more food
miles. A recent German study found that
SSFA: www.sydneyfoodfairness.org.au T: 0410 145 473
a 240ml cup of yoghurt on a supermarket
shelf in Berlin has covered over 9000km
in transport. (Germans eat 3 billion cups
a year.)
Even imported organic food can have
a tremendous impact. A single Briton’s
shopping basket of 26 imported organic
products could have travelled 241,000km
and released as much carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere as an average four bedroom
household does through cooking meals for
eight months.
Many consumers don’t want local growers
and industries undermined by cheaper
imported produce. In New Zealand, the
importation of Chinese garlic has decimated
the local industry. For every one kilogram
of garlic imported from China there is an
additional 5500 kJ of energy from fossil fuels
consumed
(www.greens.nz/food-revolution).
Locally produced the best choice
So, you want food that is less well travelled
from farm to shop, that has contributed less
to global warming and that supports local
growers, processors and retailers as well as
local economies? Go local.
Locally grown and raised has made a shorter
journey to market and abattoir. According
to a 2005 British study, if all food was
consumed within 20km of where it was
produced, costs associated with congestion
and transport would be cut by 9 per cent
(www.acfonline.org.au).
FFI: www.healthycitiesill.org.au/foodfairness.htm T: 02 4226 5000
How to reduce your food miles
Agriculture) and box schemes (see related FFA fact
sheet Community Food Systems).
How, in practice, do we support, purchase, and eat local ■
Grow some of your own food. Most people can
food?
get access to a 1m x 3m sunny, raised bed in which
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Read the labels and ask questions. Buy potatoes,
you can deposit compost and intensively grow a
sprouts, carrots, cabbage, strawberries, apples, pears
surprising amount of supplementary fruit and
and the vegetables and fruit that thrive in our own
vegetables. Even on a balcony, tomatoes and herbs do
region, the Sydney Basin.
well. Growing fruit and vegetables teaches children
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Find local greengrocers, butchers, delicatessens
— and their parents and teachers — attitudes of care
and fish shops — these are likely to be locallyand respect that are needed to sustain life.
owned businesses selling products produced within
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Look at what you can do to support local food in
the region. Again — read the labels or ask where
your personal and professional life:
produce has come from.
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Does your council/workplace/school support
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Avoid air freight, especially. Tell your shopkeepers
urban agriculture?
and the government that you want food with ‘country
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Does your council/workplace/school purchase
of origin’ clearly identified on the label.
regional produce?
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Eat whatever is in season — that is when it is at
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Celebrate the produce of your region by hosting a
its freshest and tastiest — and also at the best price.
local food dinner party.
Seasonal food guide pamphlets are available from
While you are enjoying your local food shared meal, also
some fruit markets or www.sydneymarkets.com.au
share the stories about how easy (or difficult) it was for
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Source your food from community food options:
you to source the food that you brought along. What
local farmers’ markets, community gardens, food
were some of the challenges? How did you overcome
co-operatives, CSA (Community Supported
these challenges?
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Kiwifruit: Italy
Corn: Thailand
Limes: Tahiti
Smoked salmon: Norway
Bananas: The Philippines
Grapes: Brazil
Garlic: China
Prawns: Thailand
Oranges: California
Avocados: New Zealand
How far has your food travelled?
Shipping distances alone are given - does not include additional land
transport. Multiple ingredient, processed and packaged foods accumulate
much larger total distances.
Compiled for the Food Fairness Alliance by Sandra Menteith.
Map courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps, used with permission.
A few questions for
discussion
1. What kinds of regional produce do you
have access to?
2. How might you be able to access more of
what is grown and produced locally?
3. How much would our eating habits
need to change if we were to reduce the
distance our food travels?
4. How are economic, social and
environmental problems linked to each
other and to the global food system?
5. Compare the hidden costs that are part of
our food supply.
For Sydney region residents, compare
the inputs (seedstock and its raising,
agricultural chemicals, fuel, transportation
emissions and road requirements,
CC
marketing costs, packaging and its
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disposal and retailing) of:
Creative Commons licence
●
a popper container of apple juice
www.creativecommons.org
Permission to reproduce and
imported from Italy and an apple
redistribute this discussion
grown at Bilpin in the Blue Mountains
sheet for non-profit purposes is
granted providing content is not
near Sydney
changed and the Sydney Food
Fairness Alliance is credited
●
bananas imported from North
as the source. Reproduction
Queensland and bananas grown in the
and distribution must be under
the same Creative Commons
home or nearby community garden.
licence and carry this notice.
Footnotes
1. AUSVeg CEO quoted in The Land,
August 2005
2. Sydney Daily Telegraph, 7 January
2006: Fresh Food Farce, by Darren
Behar who reports that vital nutrients
and minerals may decline in produce
held for prolonged times after
harvesting.
See also Long Distance Food
www.greens.org.nz and Bringing
the Food Economy Home, Helena
Norberg-Hodge and Steven Gorelick
www.isec.org.uk
3. Leigh Andrew, Imported fruit and
vegies worry consumers and anger
farmers, The Land August 2005
4. The World Trade Organisation:
An Australian Guide 2006 edition
(quoting the National Land and
Water Resource Audit), Global Trade
Watch, p10.
Food Miles in Australia:
A preliminary study of Melbourne, Victoria.
...researched and written by Asha Bee Abraham and
Sophie Gaballa estimates the distances travelled for
food items found in a typical Melburnian’s shopping
basket and the resulting greenhouse emissions from
this transportation. www.ceres.org.au
References
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SSFA: www.sydneyfoodfairness.org.au T: 0410 145 473
International Society for Ecology and
Culture: www.isec.org.uk
Friends of the Earth, Brisbane
(see the CSA booklet):
www.brisbane.foe.org.au
New Zealand Greens:
www.greens.org.nz/campaigns/
buylocal/foodmiles.pdf
F3 Local Food Consultants (UK):
www.localfood.org.uk
Local Food Works (UK):
www.localfoodworks.org
FFI: www.healthycitiesill.org.au/foodfairness.htm T: 02 4226 5000