Points of view: The food miles debate

photo: WREN mediaNew Agriculturist March 2007

In many developing countries smallholder export horticulture is proving to be a powerful new engine for growth in rural economies. Kenya has been one of the quickest to develop as a supplier of air-freighted fresh vegetables from smallholder fields to consumers in Europe. More than a million livelihoods have been created in farm production and a further three million in associated employment. Now Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and others want to follow suit.

However with rising concerns over climate change, consumers, environmentalists and politicians in the North are debating whether it makes environmental sense to continue to import foodstuffs with high food miles. For the smallholder farmers who have invested so much to meet the standards demanded for export, the danger that their produce could become an environmental pariah is deeply worrying. At a recent workshop in Kenya, New Agriculturist invited farmers, exporters and horticultural advisors to respond, either as individuals or as groups, to a number of key areas of contention in the food miles debate.

View the debate at http://www.new-agri.co.uk//07/02/pov.php on these questions:

- Fuelling global warming?
- It's in the balance...
- Don't crops for export waste scarce resources?
- Do small-scale farmers really benefit?
- Underpinning economic growth
- UK shoppers should support UK farmers!
- Don't keep moving the goalposts!