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Defra and supermarkets talk food miles
Page 8
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THE ENVIRONMENT secretary David Miliband met supermarket bosses last week to encourage them to reduce 'food miles' and stock more locally produced seasonal food.
The meeting included chiefs and senior management from Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's. A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokeswoman says the new secretary of state arranged the meeting to discover what supermarkets are doing to make their businesses more environmentally friendly.
It took place as Defra released figures showing that the decline in LGV food transport since 1997, measured in kilometres, has been reversed. It increased 5% between 2003 and 2004 and was attributed partly to a3% increase in imported food and drink.
Food transport by LGV has increased 27% since 1992 when measured in tonne-kilometres. According to Defra, this increase reflects improvements in the efficiency of vehicle loading and increases in vehicle size. Emissions of carbon dioxide from food transport, which also took into account 'air food miles' and overseas transport emissions, totalled almost 18 million tonnes in 2004, up y 4% since 2002. A spokesman for Tesco says the company reduced food miles to its stores by 23% last year and also cut eight million road miles. Asda says it has reduced road miles travelled by its fleet by 4.5 million miles since 2003, which equates to a 5% overall reduction. It has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 80,000 tonnes by 2007.
Commenting on the Defra figures on his internet blog site David Miliband says the government's Food Industry Sustainable Strategy will combat some of the environmental problems excessive food miles create. He adds "Of course, all of our car journeys to the supermarkets or shops make a bigger difference — 60% of UK vehicle kilometres come from cars."
christopher.tindallerbi.co.uk