What we are learning today:1. To be able to explain what food miles are.2. To describe the global advantages and

disadvantages of importing food.Why we are learning this:• To independently decide whether you agree or

disagree with importing food.• Understand that many controversial issues can be

interpreted in different ways.

5 Contemporary issuesAn awareness and implications of the following

contemporary issues:sustainability of food supplies

- ‘food miles’

Food Miles

“Food miles” - the total distance in miles the food item is transported from field to plate - has become

accepted as a convenient indicator of sustainability; and has led to a

general movement towards local production and local consumption in

order to minimise them.

Missing words:Ninety-five flown climate distance imported car

carbon dioxide doubled

Food miles are the measure of the ____________a food travels from field to plate. This travel addssubstantially to the ___________ ___________emissions that are contributing to ____________change. ____________ per cent of the fruit and halfof the vegetables in the UK are __________. Theamount of food being _________ into the UK____________ in the 1990s and is predicted to risefurther each year. Consumers are also directlyresponsible for increased food miles. We now travelfurther for our shopping and use the ______ moreoften to do it.

With the items you have been given find out the origin and label them onto your world map.

Starter:Now you have the origin, use www.organiclinker.com to find out how far they have travelled and add that to the map.

Causes for the increase?• The growth of supermarkets has caused a drastic rise in food

miles. A pint of milk or a crop of potatoes can be transported many miles to be packaged at a central depot and then sent many miles back to be sold near where they were produced in the first place.

• Globalisation of the food industry with increased imports and exports and ever wider sourcing of food within the UK and abroad .

• Another reason for rising food miles are cheaper labour costs in other countries. For example, some British fish is now sent to China – where the cost of employing people is much lower – for processing, then sent back to the UK to be sold.

• Consumers are also directly responsible for increased food miles. We now travel further for our shopping and use the car more often to do it.

• Major changes in delivery patterns with most goods now routed through supermarket regional distribution centres using larger HGVs (heavy goods vehicles)

• Centralised and concentrated sales in supermarkets where a weekly shop by car has replaced frequent pedestrian shop visits

Are the following statements

advantages or disadvantages??!

We use the money from producing our crops for

both our children to be in primary school and to build

a new home and put in electricity.

By importing food we generate large amounts of

CO2 causing global warming. The countries that will be

most effected are those we import from. Many African countries will have drought and not be able to farm any

more. Producing this food has transformed communities. Now young people want to

stay in farming because there is money and a

future in it. They can have smart phones and good

clothes by living here not in a city.

What do Europeans want – to see us all stay in poverty, to

come to Europe looking for jobs? By exporting

these crops we can earn more and invest in better lives and future

developments.

By travelling by car to supermarkets we are contributing to global warming so in the future many areas may become flooded while others become desertified.

The direct social, environmental, and economic costs of food transport are

estimated at over £9 billion each year.

Our farming contributes little to global warming. We use people

to weed fields not tractors. I wonder whether stopping the

export of out produce to Europe would stop the planes flying and whether that would really reduce

the carbon emissions?

Food transported across the world burns up a lot

of fossil fuel and contributes to global

warming.

How does the whole process of food affect

the environment

?

I think that we should/should

not import food because…