MICHAEL Specter in The New Yorker, February 2008, writes about the very complex issue of food miles and carbon footprint. Simply put, carbon footprint is a measure of the total contribution to global warming of each and every human activity, whereas food miles is the distance food travels from field to plate. Specter talks about how food carries enormous symbolic power, and the concept of ‘food miles’ is often used, he says, as a kind of shorthand to talk about climate change in general.

The term ‘food miles’ was first used by Dr. Tim Lang, author of “Food Wars” and Professor of Food Policy at London’s City University in 1994.

In May 2006, Lang, at Slow Food in Bra, explained that the concept of food miles is part of a broader issue of sustainability which deals with a large range of environmental issues including local food. He went on to say “that the point was to highlight the hidden ecological, social and economic consequences of food production to consumers in a simple way, one which had objective reality but also connotations“

The term ‘food miles’ is now being superseded by the term carbon footprint as it is often not just the distance that food travels that has to be considered. Specter highlights one of the many aspects of this in his article in the New Yorker:
“researchers at Lincoln University, in Christchurch, found that lamb raised in New Zealand and shipped eleven thousand miles by boat to England produced six hundred and eighty-eight kilograms of carbon-dioxide emissions per ton, about a fourth the amount produced by British lamb. In part, that is because pastures in New Zealand need far less fertilizer than most grazing land in Britain (or in many parts of the United States). Similarly, importing beans from Uganda or Kenya—where the farms are small, tractor use is limited, and the fertilizer is almost always manure—tends to be more efficient than growing beans in Europe, with its reliance on energy-dependent irrigation systems”

The Carbon Trust established in the United Kingdom in 2001, is an independent organisation set up by their government and its mission is to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisation to reduce carbon emissions and develop low carbon technologies. They have also developed a label for some food items to show the total carbon emissions used to produce the product.

In May 2009, Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd released a statement that his government would establish the Australian Carbon Trust to help all Australian to do their bit to reduce Australian carbon pollution. A new web site will provide a portal for individuals and households to simply calculate their energy use. The Australian Carbon Trust will be developed in collaboration with the Carbon Trust in the United Kingdom.