Ultra local

Global trade has resulted in more products travelling ever-increasing distances from production to final consumption and disposal. While ‘food miles’ simplistically means the distance food travels from farm to consumer, the term implies the impacts underlying the food system, such as energy use and contribution to climate change, dependence on fossil fuels, traffic congestion, as well as social and economic impacts on rural communities and developing countries. New Zealand food products have often been targeted by overseas campaigns for low food miles to illustrate the long distance products travel to export markets such as Europe, North America or Japan. This attention poses a potential risk to New Zealand exports, but often local sourcing is not always the most environmentally sound solution if more emissions are generated at other stages of the product life cycle than during transport.

An interesting take on informing consumers in this space is provided by Lays in the USA - check out their chip tracker: http://www.fritolay.com/lays/chip-tracker.html