Stores food miles highlighted

20 June 2000



Stores’ food miles highlighted

SUPERMARKETS in farming areas sell food that has been shipped around the country even though it grows on its doorstep, reports the Daily Express.

The newspaper highlights cases where Lincolnshire potatoes are sent to Bristol to be washed and sprouts from Kent are ferried to Scotland for processing.

It adds that supermarkets exploit the global market to bring in food imports even though they can be grown in Britain,

While the consumer gets plentiful, cheap, year-round supplies, British farmers find themselves struggling to compete with Third World suppliers.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth says it is “crazy” to import food which is grown in the UK.

This causes pollution, is wasteful and helps drive British farmers out of business, it claims.

The Express reports that in 1997 Britain exported 270m litres of milk and imported 126m, and exported 67,000 tones of butter and imported 115,000 tonnes.

• Farm group proposes food-mile tax, FWi, 28 January, 2000
  
• Daily Express 30/06/2000 page 19