Food miles are much more significant than previously thought, according to a new study, however the impact of air freight and global air miles are deemed “trivial”.

The University of Essex and City University carried out research to be published in the next edition of Elsevier’s journal Food Policy. The findings were presented for the first time today in London where authors Professor Jules Pretty (Essex) and Professor Tim Lang (City) revealed that Britons typically spend £24.79 on food each week, £7.53 of which is spent on eating out. Their analysis found that the environmental impact of this typical weekly shop was an additional 81p per person through farms not using organic farming methods, 76p person through transportation from farms to retail outlets, and 41p person through consumers traveling to and from the shops. They conclude that these environmental costs - combined with government subsidies to farmers of 93p per shopper per week - undervalue the true cost of the weekly shop by nearly 12 per cent.

Looking for strategies to minimise the environmental impact of food production and transportation, Pretty, Lang and colleagues make stark claims, based on the most authoritative econometric assessment yet conducted in this policy area.

They found if all farms in the UK were to turn organic, then environmental costs would fall from £1.5bn to less than £400m and that if all food were sourced from within 20km of where it was consumed, environmental and congestion costs would fall from more than £2.3bn to under £230m, a further saving of £2.1bn; and,

Replacing shopping by car is potentially an area for huge savings as if it were to be replaced by travel by bus, bicycle or walking, environmental and congestion costs would fall by a further £1.1bn, from £1.3bn to just over £100m.

Professor Jules Pretty, said: “The most political act we do on a daily basis is to eat, as our actions affect farms, landscapes and food businesses. These choices matter enormously, as different productions and transport systems have different effects on the environment. Food miles are much more significant than we previously thought, and much now needs to be done to encourage Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University, added: “How far food travels is becoming more important for policy-makers and consumers alike. They are rightly becoming more conscious of food and health, but the environmental costs of food choice also matter. For example, fruits and vegetables travelling long-distance or short-distance may deliver similar nutrition or look the same, but environmentally they are poles apart.”

However, contrary to the frequent claims of anti-globalisation campaigners, the environmental impact of global food miles was found to be trivial. Most people's weekly shop is made up of food grown somewhere in the UK and Europe but extensively transported across it. However, if food production were to cease on UK farms and all food were to be transported by air from global sources, the authors show that the environmental costs would rise by a staggering £19.7bn each year.

This research will be published shortly in Elsevier's journal Food Policy, volume 30, number 1. The paper is titled “Farm costs and food miles: an assessment of the full cost of the UK weekly food basket”.

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