Counting Food Miles To Christmas

As Christmas food shopping rapidly approaches, everyone in the county can help to reduce national and international food miles and support local producers. Distinctly Cumbrian, a programme delivered by Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency, is playing its part, advising local producers on distribution.

“Moving products from A to B is not an easy task for any business,” says Ian Winchester, Development Officer for Distribution at Distinctly Cumbrian. “Rural Cumbria presents its own challenges and we work with a range of quality food, drink and craft producers in the county to investigate how we can best solve their logistics problems or reduce their impact.”

One aspect of Ian’s work is to encourage people to think about the distances their food has travelled, the impact on the environment and the costs.

“We often don’t think about how far some of our Christmas treats have travelled,” he explains, “but it is possible to “spend” as many as 36 000 food miles on a Christmas spread when, with a bit of support for local producers, the same or similar and certainly fresher produce could be bought locally.”

Examples include the turkey, green vegetables, potatoes, carrots as well as trimmings such as bacon and chipolata sausage.

• Many turkeys are imported from Thailand – that’s 5000 food miles compared with a locally sourced turkey from someone like Cranstons in Penrith.
• Potatoes, even though they are in season locally, are often imported from Israel or elsewhere in Europe, which can involve up to 3 000 food miles.
• Most traditional Christmas vegetables such as carrots, Brussel sprouts and parsnips are seasonal for December and easily available locally grown and fresh – or you can buy imported varieties from Holland, South Africa and Germany, totting up even more food miles.

“It seems crazy,” continues Ian. “We have some of the finest produce growing here in Cumbria and world class meat and poultry. Buying from farm shops and direct from producers doesn’t always cost any more and it certainly costs less for the planet.”

“Some things, like cranberry sauce, are almost exclusively imported but I’d highly recommend a local alternative like one of the range of Wild and Fruitful preserves or who needs cranberries when you can have Claire Kent’s old fashioned plum chutney, made in Wigton!”

Notes
Distinctly Cumbrian was first established in 2001 to regenerate and strengthen the rural economy of Cumbria by supporting the production, distribution and marketing of local produce. The organisation is funded by the North West Development Agency and managed by the Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency (CREA).

Recommended sources of local food information include:
www.discovercumbria.net
www.artisan-food.com
www.tasteofthelakes.com
www.cumbriaorganics.org