Long haul food can produce lower carbon emissions than local produce

Buying locally produced food can produce more greenhouse gases than buying products transported long distances to customers' doors, a new study has revealed.

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent Last Updated: 11:48PM GMT 17 Jan 2009

The researchers compared all carbon emissions from the fuel and energy used in each supply chain

The findings contradict the belief that buying local food is the best option for the environment and cast doubt on the attention being paid to the "food miles" accumulated by food.
Researchers at Exeter University compared the carbon dioxide emissions of organic vegetables from local farm shops with mass produced organic vegetables delivered to customers' doors as part of a large scale vegetable box scheme.
They found that if consumers had to make a round trip by car of more than four miles to visit their local farm shop, the carbon emissions produced were greater than the mass produced vegetables that had been kept in cold storage and transported by heavy goods vehicle.
The researchers compared all carbon emissions from the fuel and energy used in each supply chain. As both methods used organic farming the farming practices were deemed to be the same.
David Coley, from the centre for energy and environment at Exeter University who led the research, said there was a need for the concept of food miles to be abandoned for a broader approach that also takes into account the sustainability of production.
He said: "We have found that if a customer drives a round trip distance of more than four miles in order to purchase their organic vegetables, their carbon emissions are likely to be greater than the emissions from the system of cold storage, packing, transport to a regional hub and final transport to customer's doorstep used by large-scale vegetable box suppliers.
"This suggests that with regard to such emissions, some of the ideas behind localism in the food sector may need to be revisited."
The researchers found that food grown in the south east of Britain and then distributed through one of the country's major vegetable box schemes travelled an average of 223 miles more than food bought from local farm shops.
They found the average delivery produced 3lbs of carbon dioxide while if a consumer drove four miles to their local farm shop they would produce 3.4lbs of carbon dioxide.
The research, which was funded by both the Department for Business and Regulatory Reform and Riverford Organics, a major organic vegetable box distributor, is due to be published in the journal of Food Policy.
It comes as major supermarkets, including Marks & Spencer and Tesco, have started to label fresh produce flown from abroad.
Recent research, however, has revealed that even products shipped from the other side of the world can emit fewer greenhouse gases than British equivalents. Lamb produced in New Zealand, for example, produces four times less carbon dioxide even after travelling 11,000 miles to British supermarkets, compared with British produced lamb.
Figures from a study at Lincoln University also revealed that both dairy products and apples imported from New Zealand had less of an effect on the environment than those produced in the UK.
Professor Caroline Saunders, who led that research, said: "Food miles are a very simplistic concept, but it is misleading as it does not consider the total energy use, especially in the production of the product."