Fair Miles: Recharting the food miles map

Summary

Today's food is well travelled. A pack of green beans in a Northern supermarket may have journeyed 6000 miles, or 60. But while food miles loom large in our carbon-aware times, transporting it counts for less than you might think. And there is a far bigger picture. Food is more than a plateful of emissions.

It's a social, political and economic issue that involves millions of small farmers in poor countries who export produce to the North. They have built lives and livelihoods around this trade. By buying what they grow, you've clocked up 'fair miles'.

This pocketbook delves into the realities of the produce trade between Africa and the UK, examining both sides of the equation in search of a diet that is ethically, as well as nutritionally, balanced.

Joint Agency Research Report

Authors: Kelly Rai Chi, freelance, James MacGregor, IIED, Richard King, Oxfam GB

Publication date: 10 December 2009