Six reasons for eating locally produced food:
- Over 60% of all packaging is for food
- Distributing food across the UK causes more than 9 billion pounds worth of environmental damage every year
- Food distribution is responsible for a quarter of all HGV traffic on the UK’s roads with the associated pollution and food miles.
- Traceability – buying local is the only way to know where the food comes from, how the animals are reared and their welfare
- Fifty years ago 50p-60p in every £1 spent on food and drink went to farmers. Today it is just 9p in the £.
- Every £1 spent with a local supplier is worth £1.76 to the local economy but only 36p if spent out of the area.
Supermarket lorries travel 408 million miles a year. This is the equivalent of going around the M25 nearly 3 million times or to the moon and back 854 times. Buying locally negates this.
Why is the UK not self-sufficient in milk, in cheese, in apples and so much more?
It is not that simple of course. Should we really abandon the developing world where providing foodstuff’s to the West is the only life-line from poverty? And should we also ignore our colonial cousins such as New Zealand and Australia where our cultures and shared history are so closely intertwined?
