Food Miles

How far has it travelled?

The next time you are in Tescos, buying fruit and veg, take a look at the country of origin and think how far that produce has travelled.

Apples from Chile will have travelled at least 7200 miles, strawberries, air freighted for freshness, from the USA have covered a minimum of 3300 miles, and those beans from Kenya, also flown in, will have been more than 4300 miles.

Instead, why not buy apples from Worcester (53 miles), strawberries from Evesham (61 miles) and beans from Kent(187 miles).

Better still, why not buy from the farmers markets at Stafford, Stone, Eccleshall and Tixall. Most of the produce will have travelled from less than 20 miles away.

Best of all, grow your own, and reduce those food miles almost to zero. A dozen runner bean plants will give you more beans than you can possibly eat, strawberries give a good crop once established. Apples are a little more difficult, but purchase a three year old tree and it will begin to produce after one year.

See below for approximately how far away countries are:

Europe		Rest of world
Netherlands	285 miles	Turkey	1851 miles
Belgium	291 miles	Egypt	2286 miles
France	312 miles	Israel	2315 miles
Denmark	623 miles	USA	3378 miles
Spain	837 miles	Dominican Republic	4288 miles
Italy	999 miles	Kenya	4329 miles
Portugal	1013 miles	South Africa	5703 miles
Canary Islands	1831 miles	Costa Rica	5350 miles
Greece	1585 miles	Chile	7217 miles
Cyprus	2094 miles	New Zealand	11340 miles

(Distances are to the countries capital, except USA which is to New York)