Food Miles

Food in the UK is mostly imported, in fact globally, food imports have increased by 400% in the last 40 years.

Food is imported because other countries climates can suit growing some food better than the climate in the UK. Prices from growers in other countries May be lower than prices from locally sourced growers, so this brings competition. This also means that the UK has a guaranteed supply of produce because of supermarkets having contracts with growers. This means that supplies can be bought from different growers around the world depending on their climate at different times of the year.

Getting food sourced locally carries on a growing tradition and this allows a skilled farming approach to continue. Campaigns and Farmers markets also encourage people to buy locally sourced food as it helps the local economy and supports local farms. Locally sourced food is also a good way to cut emissions as the food does not have to travel as far from the farm to supermarkets. Some people with environmental concerns may think this a much cleaner food and prefer to buy this as a result.

For the economy, buying in food from abroad is good because it means there is a larger range of food available all year round. Supermarkets force the growers to lower their prices by switching to other suppliers with lower prices, this causes competition to start between growers to get the lowest prices. It also means that larger farm chains could buy a private farm to grow what they prefer as part of their agribusiness. This helps them cope with the demand of what they have been asked to supply.

The large farm chains can hire in workers during the harvesting months to harvest crops for them, this is more efficient but is not good for the local economy as it means that local workers may not get a chance to work at this time. This also means that the traditional skill of local farmers is lost because the people working on farms are not local and do not know the traditions.

Food coming...