Buy British

Buy British. If you live in Britain that is!

Currently in the supermarkets there's organic strawberries, organic beef and organic breakfast cereal. Great for the environment you'd think, especially if you had read my previous post.

But look again - Spanish strawberries, Argentinian beef and Canadian wheat cereal. Each of those products has travelled more than 700 miles, 6900 miles and 3600 miles respectively to get to your kitchen. Consider the alternatives - strawberries from Kent, beef from Scotland and muesli made from Hertfordshire grown oats. A lot less fuel is used in getting the food product from A to B.

Most food is "shipped" to us by air, especially fresh products. Amazingly, kiwi fruit transported by freight carrier plane from New Zealand to Europe results in 5kg of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere for every 1kg of fruit carried. What a waste!

So next time you're in the shops, take note of where the food you buy was produced and see if there is an alternative sourced from closer to home. Alternatively, you can buy from a farmers market where all products are sourced locally.

For more information on food miles (as they're now called), see this page on the Sustain website.

caldini