Distance food is transported from production to consumption
A truck carrying produce
Part of a series about
Environmental economics
Carbon price
Carbon credit
Carbon emission trading
Carbon fee and dividend
Carbon finance
Carbon offset
Carbon tax
Emissions trading
Environmental tax
Personal carbon trading
Pigovian tax
Social cost of carbon
Climate change
Carbon footprint
Climate change mitigation
Food miles
Concepts
Bright green environmentalism
Circular economy
Climate finance
Corporate sustainability
Degrowth
Disinvestment
Eco-capitalism
Eco commerce
Eco-innovation
Eco-investing
Ecological economics
Ecological footprint
Ecological modernization
Ecotechnology
Efficient energy use
Energy conservation
Environmental
accounting
design
enterprise
finance
full-cost accounting
impact design
planning
Ethical banking
Fiscal environmentalism
Green
accounting
building
development
economy
growth
job
marketing
paradox
recovery
trading
vehicle
High-performance buildings
Impact investing
Marginal abatement cost
Natural resource economics
Pollution haven hypothesis
Social accounting
Socially responsible business
Social return on investment
Sustainability
accounting
organization
reporting
Sustainable
advertising
agriculture
capitalism
consumer behaviour
consumption
design
design standards
development
development goals
energy
finance
food systems
industries
livelihood
management
market
procurement
refurbishment
sourcing
tourism
transport
Thermoeconomics
Used good
Value of Earth
Energy transition
2000-watt society
Alternative fuel,
Carbon neutrality
Carbon-neutral fuel
Environmental technology
Feed-in tariff
Fossil fuel divestment
Fossil fuel phase-out
Low-carbon economy
Net metering
Renewable energy commercialization
Sustainable energy
Policies
Carbon leakage
Environmental pricing reform
Environmental tariff
Free public transport
Green industrial policy
Green New Deal
Green politics
Rail subsidies
v
t
e
Food miles is the distance food is transported from the time of its making until it reaches the consumer. Food miles are one factor used when testing the environmental impact of food, such as the carbon footprint of the food.[1]
The concept of food miles originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. It was conceived by Professor Tim Lang[2] at the Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment (SAFE) Alliance[3] and first appeared in print in a report, "The Food Miles Report: The Dangers of Long-Distance Food Transport", researched and written by Angela Paxton.[4][5]
Some scholars believe that an increase in the distance food travels is due to the globalization of trade; the focus of food supply bases into fewer, larger districts; drastic changes in delivery patterns; the increase in processed and packaged foods; and making fewer trips to the supermarket. These make a small part of the greenhouse gas emissions created by food; 83% of overall emissions of CO2 are in production phases.[6]
Several studies compare emissions over the entire food cycle, including production, consumption, and transport.[7] These include estimates of food-related emissions of greenhouse gas 'up to the farm gate' versus 'beyond the farm gate'. In the UK, for example, agricultural-related emissions may account for approximately 40% of the overall food chain (including retail, packaging, fertilizer manufacture, and other factors), whereas greenhouse gases emitted in transport account for around 12% of overall food-chain emissions.[8]
A 2022 study suggests global food miles CO2 emissions are 3.5–7.5 times higher than previously estimated, with transport accounting for about 19% of total food-system emissions,[9][10] albeit shifting towards plant-based diets remains substantially more important.[11]
The concept of "food miles" has been criticised, and food miles are not always correlated with the actual environmental impact of food production. In comparison, the percentage of total energy used in home food preparation is 26% and in food processing is 29%, far greater than transportation.[12]
^Engelhaupt, E (2008). "Do food miles matter?". Environmental Science & Technology. 42 (10): 3482. Bibcode:2008EnST...42.3482E. doi:10.1021/es087190e. PMID 18546672.
^http://www.city.ac.uk/communityandhealth/phpcfp/foodpolicy/index.html. He explains its history in this article Tim Lang (2006). 'locale / global (food miles)', Slow Food (Bra, Cuneo Italy), 19, May 2006, pp. 94–97
^The SAFE Alliance merged with the National Food Alliance in 1999 to become Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming http://www.sustainweb.org/. Professor Tim Lang chaired Sustain from 1999 to 2005.
^Paxton, A (1994). "The Food Miles Report: The Dangers of Long-Distance Food Transport". SAFE Alliance, London, UK. https://www.sustainweb.org/publications/the_food_miles_report/
^Iles, A. (2005). "Learning in sustainable agriculture: Food miles and missing objects". Environmental Values, 14, 163–83
^Weber, C.; Matthews, H. (2008). "Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States". Environmental Science & Technology. 42 (10): 3508–3513. Bibcode:2008EnST...42.3508W. doi:10.1021/es702969f. PMID 18546681.
^"Sources and Resources for 'Local Food: The Economics'". Worldwatch Institute. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
^Garnett 2011, Food Policy
^"Climate impact of food miles three times greater than previously believed, study finds". The Guardian. June 20, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
^Li, Mengyu; Jia, Nanfei; Lenzen, Manfred; Malik, Arunima; Wei, Liyuan; Jin, Yutong; Raubenheimer, David (June 2022). "Global food-miles account for nearly 20% of total food-systems emissions". Nature Food. 3 (6): 445–453. doi:10.1038/s43016-022-00531-w. ISSN 2662-1355. PMID 37118044. S2CID 249916086.
^"How much do food miles matter and should you buy local produce?". New Scientist. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
^John Hendrickson, "Energy use in the U.S. Food System: A summary of existing research and analysis." Sustainable Farming (Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec), vol. 7, no. 4. Fall 1997.
Foodmiles is the distance food is transported from the time of its making until it reaches the consumer. Foodmiles are one factor used when testing the...
Definitions can be based on political or geographic boundaries, or on foodmiles. The American Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 states that: (I) the locality...
The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary...
A sustainable food system is a type of food system that provides healthy food to people and creates sustainable environmental, economic, and social systems...
Organic food, ecological food, or biological food are foods and drinks produced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming. Standards...
realised through urban agriculture can improve food security and food safety while decreasing foodmiles, leading to lower greenhouse gas emissions, thereby...
Short Cuts (1993), Waiting to Exhale (1995), A Family Thing (1996), Soul Food (1997), Aquaman (2018), and Saw X (2023). On television, he played Al Boulet...
of early 2020. Studies found that foodmiles are a relatively minor factor of carbon emissions, albeit increased food localization may also enable additional...
This is a categorically-organized list of foods. Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is produced either by...
in-season food. Use of food according to its seasonal availability can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from food consumption (foodmiles). According...
live in "food deserts", low-income census tracts that are more than one mile from a supermarket in urban or suburban areas and more than 10 miles from a...
environmental benefits rest partly on the concept of minimizing foodmiles, the distance that food travels from farm to consumer.[original research?] However...
Food policy is the area of public policy concerning how food is produced, processed, distributed, purchased, or provided. Food policies are designed to...
consumer, can reduce the foodmiles factor to help minimise damage to the biosphere by combustion engine emissions involved in current food transportation. Design...
calculator). According to The Transition food is a key area for transition, sometimes the slogan "Food feet, not foodmiles" is used. Initiatives so far have...
can encourage ecosystem destruction through deforestation. Moreover, foodmiles and plastic packaging leave a large carbon footprint. In 2012 the volume...
The seventeenth season of Food Paradise, an American food reality television series narrated by Jess Blaze Snider on the Travel Channel, premiered on...
The fourteenth season of Food Paradise, an American food reality television series narrated by Jess Blaze Snider on the Travel Channel, premiered on September...
farm at Wenlock Edge in Shropshire.: 45 "Foodmiles" is a description of the number of miles a given item of food or its ingredients has travelled between...
The fifteenth season of Food Paradise, an American food reality television series narrated by Jess Blaze Snider on the Travel Channel, premiered on January...
environmentalists on the grounds of "animal cruelty" (live animals sold for food) and "high foodmiles" (fruits and seafood from another continent).[citation needed]...
William (1999). "Soul Food as Cultural Creation". Journal for the Study of Food and Society. 3 (1): 40. Retrieved 20 May 2024. Smith Miles, Suzannah. "Hoppin'...
The fourth season of Food Paradise, an American food reality television series narrated by Mason Pettit on the Travel Channel, premiered on November 7...
in viticulture in the UK is the local food movement, and the desire by consumers to cut the amount of foodmiles connected with the produce that they buy...
thousands) of miles or kilometers away from the consumer. Experience in World War II contributed to the development of frozen foods and the frozen food industry...
Global Information
