Food miles - this is ridiculous!

[Riley Blue]

O/H came home with some microwavable sponge puddings. When putting them away I glanced at the packaging and noticed the country in which they were produced:

[Ham_and_Jam]

No worse than all the cheap plastic tat worth pennies that people order from Shein / Temu

[RSTurboPaul]

This sort of thing will just disappear when we are given our mandatory 'carbon credit' allowances tied to our mandatory Digital ID.

[21TonyK]

A bit of digging reveals the company behind the brand is NZ based exporting to the UK and AUS so its more a case of us importing a product, no doubt because its cheaper.

I don't conciously look at everything I buy but when and where I can I will always buy UK produced/grown etc. Isn't always possible because I am a bit lazy at home but at work I do make a point of it.

[David_M]

It's very old, but this always sticks in my head as the most egregious example: shellfish caught in England and sold in England . . . . . but processed in Bangkok!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7150834.stm

[alangla]

Make sure you don’t look too closely at the origin label on your chicken based ready meal or frozen chicken tenders/nuggets. It’ll probably be Thailand. This may also include large warehouse type wholesalers, as well as high-street freezer shops.

[Skodillac]

This is what people voted for in 2016. Trade agreements with non-European countries outside of EU trade deals was, allegedly, a major motivator. And here we are, flying steamed sponge puddings from New Zealand.

Hooray. Freedom.

[alangla]

Skodillac said:

This is what people voted for in 2016. Trade agreements with non-European countries outside of EU trade deals was, allegedly, a major motivator. And here we are, flying steamed sponge puddings from New Zealand.

Hooray. Freedom.

To be fair, we already bought significant amounts of lamb and butter from New Zealand, even before Brexit. Same with things like lentils being predominantly Australian as far as I’m aware. Anyway, things like this are far more likely to have been moved by sea from there, they’re not exactly high value and probably have a long shelf life.

[daqinggregg]

Attempting to do your best is all very laudable and worthwhile, while I’m not particularly an environmentalist, I do subscribe to the thinking its better to try and make a difference than do nothing.

However, when spuds are being grown in Egypt, clothing ethically sourced from India Bangladesh, World international sporting events being staged in Saudi Arabia, how ethical do you really think it all is.

Better to do something than nothing.

[Skodillac]

alangla said:

Skodillac said:

This is what people voted for in 2016. Trade agreements with non-European countries outside of EU trade deals was, allegedly, a major motivator. And here we are, flying steamed sponge puddings from New Zealand.

Hooray. Freedom.

To be fair, we already bought significant amounts of lamb and butter from New Zealand, even before Brexit. Same with things like lentils being predominantly Australian as far as I m aware. Anyway, things like this are far more likely to have been moved by sea from there, they re not exactly high value and probably have a long shelf life.

Yes, I know. The point is that Brexit has changed our food logistics and supply in a predominately negative way, causing more unnecessary food miles and increases in food prices. And yes I know *other things* are part of rising prices too, but this particular aspect of the picture was the only one which didn't have to happen.

[brake fader]

Lets price our farmers out of producing good food and fly loads of unhealthy rubbish from abroad millions of miles around the world. There is nothing green about this whatsoever but yet it continues day in day out food quality has diminished big time since globalisation. Personally i don't buy anything that's not a single ingredient and local if possible.

[Sticks.]

In the 90s there was a 'food miles' campaign which encourage buying local and season foods to cut co emissions to reduce the environmental impact.

Two things have changed since then (at least).

Seasonal food largely doesn't exist - people expect everything all year.

Vegetarianism is presented as the only environmentally friendly option.