Food miles

When we buy vegetables or fruits we don't really care where they are grown. Those items might have been grown in different parts of the country or sometimes they might have been imported from other countries. All we consider while buying is the price, the freshness in their looks and the availability of a particular item in the market through out the year. We wouldn't mind paying more price to buy mangoes if they are available off the season.

In reality what happens when we ask for mangoes after the mango season is over? This puts pressure on the market and the market players tend to source it from other places to meet the demand. Another motivating factor for the suppliers is the extra price they get from selling items in off-seasons. These food items have to travel long distances to meet our off season demands. Food miles is the distance travelled by a food item to reach the consumer's plate. It's often referred as 'from the plough to the plate'.

A report published by The Guardian newspaper found that a selection of 20 fresh food items purchased from British supermarkets had travelled an average of 5,000 miles each. Look at these numbers: grapes had travelled 7,247 miles, carrots and peas 5,979 miles and Apples had travelled 10,133 miles before being consumed by people. In the USA, on average, each food item travels 1,500 miles before arriving at consumer's tables. This travel burns huge amounts of fossil fuels. Farmers also employ inorganic ways to improve the travel life and durability of vegetable and fruits. Sometimes this comes at a cost of the quality and taste of the food item. This report gives some astonishing facts.

It's not this worse in India though. But any travel by a food item is a waste of energy.

Radish is probably the most consumed vegetable in Madras due to its importance in making a sambaar. But a large volume of radish consumed in this port city comes from a village called Sheegehalli in the Kolar district of Karnataka. On average this village transports about 4-5 lorries of fresh radish to Chennai everyday. This radish travels around 270-300 Kilometers and takes about 7-8 hours approximately before being part of the delicious sambaar.

I also know a few places who do intelligent sourcing. For example FoodWorld in Bangalore source baby corn from Hosakote which is about 25 Kilometers away and just takes about 1 hour to reach its stores. Most of the vegetable shops in towns and villages source their vegetables from local farmers. Even if we are buying less good looking items from these shops at least we are sure the vegetables we are consuming are not emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. They are genuinely fresh looking as opposed to chemically fed containers during the travel.

While travelling we must have seen the roadside vendors selling vegetables and fruits. This is the freshest quality we can get without burning a single calorie of fossil fuel as food miles.

Next time when I go to the vegetable shop, I am thinking of asking him how far a vegetable has travelled before reaching his shop and what was its place of origin!!