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Eating Oil: Food supply in a changing climate, a major new report launched today, 10th December (2001), by Sustain and Elm Farm Research Centre (EFRC) takes a comprehensive look at how far our food travels and our dependency on imports and on fossil fuels to produce, process, package and distribute food [1] [2] [3]. It shows how our food is travelling ever further both within the UK and through international trade.

Airfreight of food has expanded significantly and in the UK, the distance that food is transported by road increased by 50 per cent between 1978 and 1999. The food system now accounts for between a third and 40 per cent of all UK road freight. The distances involved in the distribution of fresh produce can be demonstrated by looking at a traditional meal. If bought at a supermarket, many ingredients will have been imported and could have travelled, cumulatively, over 24,000 miles. However, choosing seasonal products and purchasing them locally at a farmers' market, for instance, could reduce the total distance to 376 miles, 66 times fewer food miles [4].

This means our food supply is:

Vulnerable: The oil supplies that fuel the food system could be exhausted by 2040 [5]. In many regions oil production has peaked and most reserves lie in the Middle East. Food security is also threatened, for example, even if all UK fruit production was consumed in the UK, of every 100 fruit products purchased, only 5 will now have been grown in the UK.

Inefficient: For every calorie of carrot, flown in from South Africa, we use 66 calories of fuel. The huge fuel use in the food system means more carbon dioxide emissions which means climate change and more damage to food supplies as well as other major health and social problems.

Unsustainable: Even organic supplies are becoming hugely damaging as imports fill our shelves [6]. One shopping basket of 26 imported organic products could have travelled 241,000 kilometres and released as much CO2 into the atmosphere as an average four bedroom household does through cooking meals over eight months [7].

Other problems highlighted include loss of nutrients in food, increased incidence and spread of diseases like Foot and Mouth, and major animal welfare problems. Poor countries producing food for distant markets are not necessarily seeing benefits through increased and often intensive production for export. The report reveals how such trends could be reversed through industry, government and public action.

The report's author, Andy Jones says

“The food system has become almost completely dependent on crude oil. This means that food supplies are vulnerable to increases in petroleum prices or any shortfall in oil supplies, as demonstrated during the fuel protests in the UK in 2000. Food distribution is also a major contributor to climate change and other forms of pollution. The environment and society cannot continue to bear the costs. We need to invest, now, in regional and local food systems combined with fair trade initiatives that will bring about a more secure, sustainable and fair food system.”

Download the full press release with case studies here

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Notes to Editors

1. Eating Oil: food in a changing climate, is packed with examples, diagrams and data and includes a set of recommendations for action. It cost £30 (£12 to individuals and non-profit organisations). A public information leaflet will also be available. The report is published by Sustain and Elm Farm Research Centre and written by Andy Jones.

2. Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, promote equity and enrich society and culture. Sustain represents around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level.

3. Elm Farm Research Centre is an international research, advisory and educational organisation based in the UK. The business of EFRC is to develop and support sustainable land-use, agriculture and food systems, primarily within local economies which build on organic principles to ensure the health and wellbeing of soil, plant, animal, man and his environment. Web: http://www.efrc.com/.

4. See Case study 1 in the PDF download

5. Medea – European Agency for international information,2001. Oil Reserves. at - www.medea.be/en/

6. One way to reduce organic food miles is to increase UK production. The Organic Targets Campaign is encouraging the government to adopt an organic action plan with a target of 30% agricultural land to be organic by 2010. Such an action plan would reduce the UK's current reliance on imported organic foods.

7. See Case study 2 in the PDF download

Download the full press release with case studies here

Please click here to download the document