Food Miles Calculator

What are Food Miles?

Food miles are a way of attempting to measure how far food has travelled before it reaches the consumer. It is a good way of looking at the environmental impact of foods and their ingredients. It includes getting foods to you, but also getting waste foods away from you, and to the landfill!

What Does That Mean?

It means that it is time to think about where your food has come from and what environmental effects this has had.

What Are The Effects?

The effects of food miles can be measured in the pollution that is caused. Think about the distance travelled, then think about how that distance was covered. Was it by Plane? Boat? Road?

What Can I Do?

Buy Local! That's the key. This means supporting local growers. Its much better for the environment growing and buying organic, but what if that organic product has come from, say Chile? That's a long haul journey for your apples to go! Its better to go down the road (on a bicycle) and buy from your local farmer, or grower.

Beware though, even some foods that may appear to be from local suppliers, if bought is supermarkets, have probably toured the country between depots before arriving back in the shop.

Why not walk to the local shop or get the bus? This all helps to reduce the "food mileage" effect. Composting packaging, where possible, is another way of reducing the environmental effects of our food. This reduces the amount of waste that needs to be taken to the landfill sites and again helps to cut pollution.

Where can I find out more?

Find out more about Food Miles and some fun statistics from our calculator -> More about food miles

If you like this you might like our sister site!

We created Veggie Trumps - a vegucational game to help teach everyone about the goodness of fruits and vegetables! There is also the dad blog of our illustrious leader over here - A New Dad

Right now you can get your hands on some Free Seeds