I have a mini inner city garden which supplies basically all our green food in summer and 50% in winter we also harvest and store beetroot and beans. I keep us supplied with lots of herbs as well. We have fruit trees so currently my cupboards are full of plum jam marmalade etc and we will get a good crop of apples and tamarillos soon. When my family wa young and it was an economic neccesity we lived out of our garden about 90% all year and kept ourselves in eggs and some poultry also I am a hunter so that keeps us in a good supply of proper meat my fishing also keeps us in enough fish to satisy us.
Having said that I think antiglobalisation and food miles is just more western arrogance and if not done with some discretion will only lead to more poverty in the third world.
duckmoon,
Feb 1, 7:17am
I live in Wgtn. which makes food miles harder... It isn't that you can head north and south and east and west from Wgtn. Really on North.
duckmoon,
Feb 1, 7:19am
Food miles is one measurement. Another measurement is "how much energy, water, etc has been used to produce this and deliver it to my house".
Sometimes, a product which is grown further a way and transported is more energy effecient than something grown locally.
Like beef in Germany, grown in a barn. More effecient to grown it in a field in NZ and ship it, than to grown it in a barn locally.
duckmoon,
Feb 1, 7:21am
Final comment: Is the person who grow this product paid enough to feed their family. e. g. bananas have a bad reputation. The big companies will come in, purchase land, disenfranchise peasant farmers. Then employ them to grow and harvest the bananas, but they don't pay them enough to feed their families. Sending them into a cycle of debt and increased poverty.
Here, the issue isn't food miles, but fair trade.
duckmoon,
Feb 1, 7:22am
David, I love love love that phrase. Love of Honest of Food! ! ! Can I quote you? !
duckmoon,
Feb 1, 7:30am
One thing about food miles, is that means that you eat in season.
Rather than have apples imported from USA, the other option is to wait until apple season, and eat them fresh in NZ. And avoid the ones which have sat in a cool store.
Last year, our school did a fundraiser. Apples fresh from the tree in Greytown (we are in wgtn). One of the issues for parents was what variety of apple would it be? ? ?
The apple variety would be the best one picked that one (so it would vary through the weeks - it was an 16 week fundraiser, one bag per week).
For some families this was a step too far. "my kids only eat royal gala" (or whatever). So they were choosing cool store apples over fresh from the tree - based on the variety of apple.
dezzie,
Feb 1, 7:32am
yep duckmoon, thats what I was trying to say in my post comparing NZ lamb in UK compared to their own local lamb, maybe more food miles on the NZ stuff, but vastly more energy efficent even including the shipping than the product there.
maysept,
Feb 1, 6:30pm
On the one hand I think that like most populist bandwagons, food miles is an idea that hasn't really been thought through. If everyone buys locally, what will happen to economies like ours, that rely on exporting? (And don't assume that would only affect farmers and not you. ) Most producers in this country couldn't survive selling only to the local market. There are also many products (wheat, peanuts, bananas) that we can't produce in enough quantity to supply ourselves. Having said that, I do think that it's a good idea for people to try to eat more seasonally, rather than buying tasteless imported asparagus or watermelon in the middle of July. That's where local food comes into it's own. Honestly, I don't know why anyone would buy thoseimported, shrink wrapped corn cobs!
uli,
Feb 1, 8:28pm
Of course this is based on the (wrong) assumption that cheap oil is going to last forever, which it won't. If we would assume that it won't last for ever - then any transport needs to be minimized, so oil could be used for stuff that is more valuable to us than burning it in an engine.
duckmoon,
Feb 1, 8:50pm
When I was living in the UK, I couldn't believe what was airfrieghted into the country.
At least, do it by sea... Again, it is the total energy required to get it to market; the engine on a ship - or the heating of a barn
uli,
Feb 2, 4:53am
For UK people read "Whats not on the label" by Felicity Lawrence.
darlingmole,
Feb 2, 5:19am
hmmmm ... well I'm know as the "Queen of Mean" by my teenage children (toddlers are yet to give their opinion). I have fruit trees (pepino el camino, guava, lemon, cape goose berry, fiejoa) and a limited vegetable garden this year due to annoying said oompah-loompahs who are trying to "help" me and just unroot everything I plant! However when it comes to packaged foods I 95% resist the urge to buy due to: money and health on a a 50-50% par with each other. I hate the additives & ingredients that I cannot pronounce much less understand what they are (what does a number taste like afterall? ! )So what I don't grow I buy, very luckily for me, locally. I understand about global warming etc to a limited point but I'm more concerned about the chemicals in my food, the cost of buying utter crap and equally as importantly ~ keeping Kiwi workers working. So if I have a choice I choose NZ grown
babychick6,
Feb 3, 8:56am
I do try and buy NZ grown, especially locally grown at the Farmer's market. Some fruit grows better in the South Island like stone fruit so if we send it to the North Island is that export/import? And the opposite as well. In a recent item in our local paper the Kiwi's are showing the Americans how to farm dairy cows. Not inside all year round but outside in the air and sunshine. Costing less to produce the milk and better environmentally.
nfh1,
Feb 3, 8:59am
I have started growing veges and buy locally as much as possible but how would the NZ farming industry be if other countries did the same.
How much lamb is sold here compared to exported, or apples, or wine... ... ... .
jaybee2003,
Feb 3, 9:21am
Sometimes we can be lulled into a sense of false security. Recently I travelled to Greytown bypassing at least half a dozen supermarkets, to buy fresh local produce specifically for bottling etc. I bought plums and berry fruits direct from the Greytown growers. I know those were locally grown, freshly picked, and the prices were cheaper than the supermarket. So I was happy.
On the way home however, a large roadside sign from a "we grow our own" veges/fruit type business, was advertising apricots at a great price. When I went to pay for my apricots, assuming [maybe foolishly too? ] that they were locally grown, the staff person said to me "If these are for bottling, we have boxes just arrived from Southland if you'd prefer them... "Not all items sold at some"we sell locally grown produce" businesses are locally grown. Where were the ones grown that I was buying? She didn't have a clue.
How ironic the 6 supermarkets I had passed would most likely be selling exactly the same product, the only 'benefit' being they were $3 a kilo cheaper than the supermarket. However I had wasted extra of fuel to purchase them.
jaybee2003,
Feb 3, 9:27am
Now I don't watch a lot of TV, but I seem to recall a huge advertising push last year from New World Supermarkets - Locally owned, Locally grown produce [seasonally where they can source it]? Maybe someone else can confirm. Wasn't that New World's claim to fame? ?
uli,
Feb 3, 8:05pm
Since I don't own a tv I cannot comment. I do know however that huge quantities of "fresh" produce now come from China including broccoli, onions, pears, apples, garlic and carrots. I also know that huge quantities of "fresh" green beans, tomatoes, oranges etc come from Australia. I know that over 50% of the pork products consumed in NZ come from Canada, Australia and Europe. ...
And hardly any of this is labelled as such.
jaybee2003,
Feb 3, 8:09pm
I was stunned to read the label on the hastily bought without reading the labels fresh snow peas bought from Woolworths last year - were a product of Zimbabwe!
elliehen,
Feb 4, 12:11am
An interesting connection to the topic of food miles is each person's individual 'footprint' on planet earth, that is, how many of the world's resources we individually use. You can grow all your own food but still have a large footprint if you live alone in one dwelling, drive a car and maybe have a caravan parked outside!
Check out this WWF website if you're interested in finding out how large your personal 'footprint' is: http://rsa. footprint. wwf.org. uk/
uli,
Feb 4, 12:33am
elliehen- one of your useless posts (above) - your "individual" footprint has nothing to do with what you personally "use" - AND I would think that you are intelligent enough to know that.
So why do you post such nonsense?
elliehen,
Feb 4, 12:44am
Sigh... . another 'ad hominem' attack - or in this case, 'ad feminam'...
uli,
Feb 4, 12:50am
Do you really really REALLY - NOT understand - or are you just trying to be "difficult"? ? ? I cannot get it elliehen - why do you post such non-sense?
hezwez,
Feb 4, 1:49am
Huh? Can't understand your post at all uzi, elliehen's posts are among the most entertaining and well informed in this forum. Weren't you going to back off the attacks for a bit and retire to your garden?
nfh1,
Feb 4, 5:03am
I just did that - oh dear - apparently I am living as though we had 6. 2 Planets! !
Ans I thought I was good.
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