Where does it come from...?

Whenever I can, when I'm buying food, I always buy british produce. Not out of some sort of weird nutritional patriotism, but because I know that it won't have come so far. But as a vegetarian, I like to have lots of differnt kinds of fruits and vegetables. (thats not to say there aren't some I won't eat, and on that list there are things such as pumpkin, butternut squash, swede, turnip, celeriac, celery, aubergines, courgettes and pickled onions) Many of these ahve to be imported because as we have seen from the past few months, the climate here in the UK just isn't suitable to sustain commercial growth of things like oranges and bananas.


Sooooo its imported! Yeah, this isn't news. I know. But I'm really aware that a lot of things like oranges, spices, exotic fruits and so on (Including meat, actually- although this doesn't directly affect me in my vegetarianism, but the same concept still applies) are coming from a source that we can't sustain either- food miles.

Food miles have such an impact on the planet because we live in a culture that demands we have everything at our fingertips- we can still buy fresh pineapples and mangoes in December, and lots of people don't give it a second thought. 

But it bothers me. It bothers me that for the sake of a pinepple, more and more carbon is being put into our already carbon-saturated atmosphere. 

Although some supermarkets etc are getting better at sorting out their foodmiles issues. Its important that everyone pitches in and gets aware of where their food is coming from:-

• Transporting fresh produce by sea freight- e.g. bananas that can be picked and ripened afterwards- by the time they reach sellers, they're ripe or close to ripe. 
• Always labelling the country of origin of their fersh produce. I'm not sure, but I think it might be illegal to sell fresh produce without the label detailing their origin in the UK now. Someone find out and tell me :P 
• Buying things when they are in season- this goes back to the pineapple in december thing. If you really are that desperate for pineapple in December, firstly- who is ever that desperate for pineapple? And secondly, buy it from a tin. You'll do the planet a favour, and if you forget about this pinepple, its not going to go rotten and attract fruitflies within a week. 

The concequences of buying things that clock up lots of food miles mean that our summers get hotter, and our winters get colder- the weather gets more extreme everywhere. Sure there are lots of other things contributing to it, but if I were me (and I am) I would make the small effor to just buy as much local, and british produce as possible- and if not, at least european! then it hasn't come so far, and your food has less of a carbon footprint.

What do you think? Ever had thoughts about how far your food has come before it reaches your plate? Do you buy local food or maybe even grow your own? Let me know in the comments.


Today, this is me:

I'm in sleep deprivation recovery. No judging ;)

See you tomorrow,
-Rosa
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