Buy Local and INCREASE your carbon footprint???

Just as we are all toting up the figures to find out how big our carbon footprint really is, and many food retailers are making the decision to label air freighted products to make us have to THINK about where our food comes from and how many food miles the journey generates, researchers warn us that food transportation is only a teensy weeny part of the carbon footprint. Taking a look at the average UK shoppers food trolley, the latest study has found that only two per cent of an item's carbon footprint is generated by the journey. They now argue that the packaging, processing, storage and growing conditions of an item are the major contributors and that locally sourced foods could be more harmful than those transported by air. Dr Ruth Fairchild from the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff said: "I'm a bit worried about the food miles debate because it is educating the consumer in the wrong way. It is such an insignificant point. Those foods could have been produced using pesticides that have travelled all the way around the world. If you just take food miles, it is the tiny bit on the end."