Food miles - this is ridiculous!

[Riley Blue]

O/H came home with some microwavable sponge puddings. When putting them away I glanced at the packaging and noticed the country in which they were produced:

[Ham_and_Jam]

No worse than all the cheap plastic tat worth pennies that people order from Shein / Temu

[RSTurboPaul]

This sort of thing will just disappear when we are given our mandatory 'carbon credit' allowances tied to our mandatory Digital ID.

[21TonyK]

A bit of digging reveals the company behind the brand is NZ based exporting to the UK and AUS so its more a case of us importing a product, no doubt because its cheaper.

I don't conciously look at everything I buy but when and where I can I will always buy UK produced/grown etc. Isn't always possible because I am a bit lazy at home but at work I do make a point of it.

[David_M]

It's very old, but this always sticks in my head as the most egregious example: shellfish caught in England and sold in England . . . . . but processed in Bangkok!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7150834.stm

[alangla]

Make sure you don’t look too closely at the origin label on your chicken based ready meal or frozen chicken tenders/nuggets. It’ll probably be Thailand. This may also include large warehouse type wholesalers, as well as high-street freezer shops.

[Skodillac]

This is what people voted for in 2016. Trade agreements with non-European countries outside of EU trade deals was, allegedly, a major motivator. And here we are, flying steamed sponge puddings from New Zealand.

Hooray. Freedom.

[alangla]

Skodillac said:

This is what people voted for in 2016. Trade agreements with non-European countries outside of EU trade deals was, allegedly, a major motivator. And here we are, flying steamed sponge puddings from New Zealand.

Hooray. Freedom.

To be fair, we already bought significant amounts of lamb and butter from New Zealand, even before Brexit. Same with things like lentils being predominantly Australian as far as I’m aware. Anyway, things like this are far more likely to have been moved by sea from there, they’re not exactly high value and probably have a long shelf life.

[daqinggregg]

Attempting to do your best is all very laudable and worthwhile, while I’m not particularly an environmentalist, I do subscribe to the thinking its better to try and make a difference than do nothing.

However, when spuds are being grown in Egypt, clothing ethically sourced from India Bangladesh, World international sporting events being staged in Saudi Arabia, how ethical do you really think it all is.

Better to do something than nothing.

[Skodillac]

alangla said:

Skodillac said:

This is what people voted for in 2016. Trade agreements with non-European countries outside of EU trade deals was, allegedly, a major motivator. And here we are, flying steamed sponge puddings from New Zealand.

Hooray. Freedom.

To be fair, we already bought significant amounts of lamb and butter from New Zealand, even before Brexit. Same with things like lentils being predominantly Australian as far as I m aware. Anyway, things like this are far more likely to have been moved by sea from there, they re not exactly high value and probably have a long shelf life.

Yes, I know. The point is that Brexit has changed our food logistics and supply in a predominately negative way, causing more unnecessary food miles and increases in food prices. And yes I know *other things* are part of rising prices too, but this particular aspect of the picture was the only one which didn't have to happen.

[brake fader]

Lets price our farmers out of producing good food and fly loads of unhealthy rubbish from abroad millions of miles around the world. There is nothing green about this whatsoever but yet it continues day in day out food quality has diminished big time since globalisation. Personally i don't buy anything that's not a single ingredient and local if possible.

[Sticks.]

In the 90s there was a 'food miles' campaign which encourage buying local and season foods to cut co emissions to reduce the environmental impact.

Two things have changed since then (at least).

Seasonal food largely doesn't exist - people expect everything all year.

Vegetarianism is presented as the only environmentally friendly option.

[dapprman]

David_M said:

It's very old, but this always sticks in my head as the most egregious example: shellfish caught in England and sold in England . . . . . but processed in Bangkok!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7150834.stm

You beat me to this one. Isn't this still the case with scampi?

[ChocolateFrog]

It's why I hate all the lip service to climate change.

They do fk all. Absolutely bat st mental that we're buying food from literally the other side of the world.

We're being laughed at by those in places of power and influence.

The sooner the world implodes the better, let's just get it over with. Still time for another quadrillion single use plastic items to fill the waterways I suppose.

[BoRED S2upid]

How can importing that from NZ be cheaper than making it in say Yorkshire. Crazy.

[BoRED S2upid]

How can importing that from NZ be cheaper than making it in say Yorkshire. Crazy.

[RSTurboPaul]

ChocolateFrog said:

It's why I hate all the lip service to climate change.

They do fk all. Absolutely bat st mental that we're buying food from literally the other side of the world.

We're being laughed at by those in places of power and influence.

The sooner the world implodes the better, let's just get it over with. Still time for another quadrillion single use plastic items to fill the waterways I suppose.

It's not lip service - it is carefully and continuously setting up 'the narrative' with which to justify horrendously intrusive and authoritarian 'personal carbon allowance' restrictions based on your transactions that will be required to go through and be tracked via your mandatory Digital ID, the aim being to stop the peasants travelling, stop the peasants buying meat (i.e. being physically strong) and stop the peasants heating their own homes to a comfortable level - 'because global cooling global warming climate changeclimate emergency'.

Mastercard has already worked with the World Economic Forum and others to develop a 'carbon calculator' and assign a 'carbon impact' to every single purchase:
https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/p...
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2019/05/this-credi...

And as indicated by the graphics on that latter story, the end-game is a forced transition to veganism for the peasants, amongst other things - and let us not forget that we will 'eat ze bugs' if we really must have some protein:




'The elites' will of course get to jump on their private jets to Davos regularly so they can eat wagyu beef and talk about how they as wise and glorious leaders are leading the way in helping make their peasants' lives 'better' by restricting their freedom and controlling their choices reducing emissions person-by-person (but not their own, obvs) 'for the greater good' - you know, like communism.


All of which is why many are extremely cynical when it comes to the ever-changing story around 'climate'.


If a person really does wish the world to 'implode' and thinks both they and their fellow humans should effectively be exterminated to 'solve climate change', due to decades of doom-mongering messaging that later has to be buried/revised because the scary predictions did not come true (again), I feel sort of sorry for them.

The world is an amazing place and we should get out there and enjoy the experience to its fullest during our limited time on this rock. That we are being herded into a Digital ID-based panopticon that will mean our lives and freedoms are subject to the whims of a self-selecting 'elite', who could basically lock us down with a couple of button presses to turn off our Digital ID permissions, and which would apparently be welcomed with open arms by unquestioning self-flagellating hoovers of official messaging, is extremely depressing.

[Peterpetrole]

Skodillac said:

alangla said:

Skodillac said:

This is what people voted for in 2016. Trade agreements with non-European countries outside of EU trade deals was, allegedly, a major motivator. And here we are, flying steamed sponge puddings from New Zealand.

Hooray. Freedom.

To be fair, we already bought significant amounts of lamb and butter from New Zealand, even before Brexit. Same with things like lentils being predominantly Australian as far as I m aware. Anyway, things like this are far more likely to have been moved by sea from there, they re not exactly high value and probably have a long shelf life.

Yes, I know. The point is that Brexit has changed our food logistics and supply in a predominately negative way, causing more unnecessary food miles and increases in food prices. And yes I know *other things* are part of rising prices too, but this particular aspect of the picture was the only one which didn't have to happen.

Food manufacturing is the biggest manufacturing sector in the UK, the charge to net zero and offshoring manufacturing has far more to do with encouraging food imports than minor Brexit road humps.

French farmers blocking the roads (pre Brexit) and port strikes in the UK are also big factors.

[dunkind]

BoRED S2upid said:

How can importing that from NZ be cheaper than making it in say Yorkshire. Crazy.

I always make my own, here in Yorkshire. Cherries from the garden to make my cherry jam.

[JoshSm]

BoRED S2upid said:

How can importing that from NZ be cheaper than making it in say Yorkshire. Crazy.

Well here's the thing - container ships have to sail both ways regardless, they don't make special trips just to pick up puddings.

So often there's an imbalance on things like container costs that can make it more viable to ship from a particular destination than might be obvious. The ship is often sailing anyway with or without a full load. New Zealand is a net importer for many types of goods so guess which way the cheap shipping is likely to be?

For other items the different cost of processing (generally labour) is more than enough to cover the difference in shipping.


Ultimately there's nothing to stop someone more local in the UK or EU providing the same goods if they're viable and haven't been strangled by regulation or operating costs. Just like all the other items that have been offshored.