Food imports

[Jeanied]

Just racking my brains to think how I can eat a bit more sustainably.
This weather I am having allotment soup and my maincrop potatoes are good bakers.
I'm hoping to get some inspiration in cooking my dried beans as well. Don't eat red meat so that makes things simpler.

[rustylady]

The ones that are in the aisle dedicated to "speciality food" in some supermarket

Sorry Liza, I am not being awkward but could you please specify some foods. I shop at Asda and Tesco and they don't have speciality food.

[Jeanied]

I don't think I could do without imported spices though - just thinking about it and looking round my kitchen. Do we still get most of the white sugar from homegrown sugar beet?

[minskey]

Solway cropper; you have said exactly what I think.

My other bugbear is the miles food travels in the UK. Where I am is the largest area for growing food & veg in the UK. fantastic UK grown produce from field where they pack as they harvest to the main pack house in under an hour; what fantastic service from farmers. This is then ruined by being transported to supermarket distro centres around the country only to be brought back here for sale after being kept in the back of a chiller lorry for days!!!!

The waste is aslo unbelievable too, it could feed a nation, rejected as not round, straight etc. 18ton Lorrys being sent from here to scotland and back with a 'load' of 12 boxes of mushrooms................... criminal

[Jeanied]

Sorry Liza, I am not being awkward but could you please specify some foods. I shop at Asda and Tesco and they don't have speciality food.

Our local Tescos and Morrisons both have a Polish section and an area where they sell Asian and Oriental ingredients. I wish I could read the labels 'cos it all looks interesting.
I'm not sure they are contributing that much to the huge amount of food imports, to be honest.

[rustylady]

Totally agree Minskey. At least when we eat our own crops we aren't worried whether they are exactly matching in size, colour etc. Good nutritious food being thrown out for being the wrong size or shape is criminal. The biggest crime is that is thrown away and not sold to people who would be happy to buy it.

[beefy]

Solway cropper; you have said exactly what I think.

This is then ruined by being transported to supermarket distro centres around the country only to be brought back here for sale after being kept in the back of a chiller lorry for days!!!!

The waste is aslo unbelievable too, it could feed a nation, rejected as not round, straight etc. 18ton Lorrys being sent from here to scotland and back with a 'load' of 12 boxes of mushrooms................... criminal

I'd safely say that if you look into it produce delivered to a supermarket distro centre will be on the shelves of the supermarkets tomorrow . It's called Just In Time (JIT) delivery something I have almost 15 years experience of .
The lorry will leave the pack house late afternoon , go straight to the distro centre "tip" the veg which will be sorted out and sent on to the supermarket for next morning delivery . Field to shelf in less than 24 hours - not running about in the back of a lorry for days .
Lorrys leaving with 12 boxes of mushies for Scotland may be picking up more product for delivery on the way - yours might just be the first collection point on the way there and the last delivery on the way back.If not they won't be in business long.

[Liza]

Sorry Liza, I am not being awkward but could you please specify some foods. I shop at Asda and Tesco and they don't have speciality food.

Shopping & Groceries Delivered To Your Door - Tesco.com
Tesco's Asian aisle rolls | Grocer | Find Articles at BNET
Tesco launch website for homesick Polish immigrants - Telegraph

[zazen999]

The 250-strong range, launched in September last year and currently in 100 outlets, includes bulk packets of rice, oil, lentils and specialist chutneys, pulses and spices. There is also a range of frozen vegetables, which buying manager Nitin Patel described as "one of the major successes", as well as frozen samosas and kulfi ice cream.

We've been eating rice and lentils and chutneys for years - ever since the Brits invaded other countries and massacred the inhabitants; what's your point?

[Bramble_killer]

The ones that are in the aisle dedicated to "speciality food" in some supermarkets.



My ex and many of my friends are also non british,they eat british food, but also enjoy foods imported from their home countries, there is not much you cant buy now from all over the world.

Yes we have always imported and exported as have many countries for many years and it is very important, but my post was "a maybe due to", in reply to the OPs " Highest levels recorded in 40 years".

But to say that with all the food on the aisles, unless they say air-flown, a lot of them will have been shipped across in large great containers packed in a big ship, taking months to reach here. It does not negate the ability to grow sustainably?

It is also entirely possible that the calculation of food miles is not absolutely relevant to the total cost of producing the food. Everyone always buys Scottish/Welsh lamb because it's the number of food miles are lower but what about the carbon cost?

" Instead of measuring a product’s carbon footprint through food miles alone, the Lincoln University scientists expanded their equations to include other energy-consuming aspects of production — what economists call “factor inputs and externalities” — like water use, harvesting techniques, fertilizer outlays, renewable energy applications, means of transportation (and the kind of fuel used), the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed during photosynthesis, disposal of packaging, storage procedures and dozens of other cultivation inputs.

Incorporating these measurements into their assessments, scientists reached surprising conclusions. Most notably, they found that lamb raised on New Zealand’s clover-choked pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced 1,520 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per ton while British lamb produced 6,280 pounds of carbon dioxide per ton, in part because poorer British pastures force farmers to use feed. In other words, it is four times more energy-efficient for Londoners to buy lamb imported from the other side of the world than to buy it from a producer in their backyard. Similar figures were found for dairy products and fruit."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/op...cwilliams.html

[Bramble_killer]

I don't think I could do without imported spices though - just thinking about it and looking round my kitchen. Do we still get most of the white sugar from homegrown sugar beet?

It's ok, even the ancients practised trading and black pepper was once used as a form of currency.

The problem about sugar beet is that it is more expensive to produce.
BBC NEWS | Business | Q&A: Sugar subsidies

[taff]

what's your point?

there's also the range of fruit and veg we don't normally grow, yams, sweet potatoes [although they're making more headway now], kiwis, coconuts, okra, dudhi, avocado, pineapple, lemons, oranges, bananas, lychees, pomegranates, figs etc.
I know some people grow their own of these, but as a sweeping statement and generalisation, they're not things you'll find in the average veg plot.

[Liza]

The 250-strong range, launched in September last year and currently in 100 outlets, includes bulk packets of rice, oil, lentils and specialist chutneys, pulses and spices. There is also a range of frozen vegetables, which buying manager Nitin Patel described as "one of the major successes", as well as frozen samosas and kulfi ice cream.

We've been eating rice and lentils and chutneys for years - ever since the Brits invaded other countries and massacred the inhabitants; what's your point?

The other 247 items you didn't mention that we haven't imported for years.

[zazen999]

The other 247 items you didn't mention that we haven't imported for years.

a - the first link is to the polish part of tesco - I don't subscribe to tesco so can't see all the 247 items that you speak of
b - direct quote from that page as quoted by me
c - just a link to an article on the daily telegraph.

So, what's your point?

[Seahorse]

I heartily agree with solway cropper about at least trying to eat seasonally and, when we can, grow our own.

I truly don't care for the 'Daily Mail' type theory that it's 'them', not 'us' as the culprits for importing stuff In my city there are plenty of Eastern European branded items available but I seriously doubt they're a very big percentage of imported goods. I constantly see very basic veg, easily grown here at the right time, on supermarket shelves - beans from Africa, apples from South America etc etc.

As already mentioned, some crops provide a valuable income to developing countries and I think that buying coffee, spices and exotic fruits from Fair Trade outlets benefits both my kitchen and the people who grow them. The transport issue isn't ideal but it's a swings & roundabouts thing.