Food miles are the sustainability obsession we all think we know about. Add up how far your avocado flew, feel guilty about the lamb from New Zealand, buy local where you can – you’re saving the planet!
Only it’s not that simple. And it isn’t always true.
For the last year, I’ve been recording everything I eat. Not religiously, but certainly enough to notice trends. Where things come from. Whether that label listing UK produce is actually better for the planet. And I’ve come to realise that how your food travels matters much more than how far.
In fact, sometimes locally produced food has a higher carbon footprint than something shipped halfway across the world.
This is important because choosing food badly wastes money and effort without actually helping your carbon emissions. Food prices in the UK have gone up a lot recently with prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rising 4.5% in the year to December 2025 (UK Government Food Stats). If you’re paying more for stuff labelled as locally sourced thinking it’s somehow automatically better for the planet. You deserve to know if that’s actually true.
Here’s what I’ve learned.
## How Food Transport Emissions Work
The Problem With Food Miles
Food miles makes a simplistic assumption that distance correlates with emissions. But different methods of transport produce wildly different emissions for the same weight in food.
Air Freight versus Other Modes
Air freight completely dwarfs every other transportation method. Food transported by plane produces 177x more greenhouse gases than transportation by shipping (BBC Food miles PDF). Don’t be tricked into thinking small distances are better. Air freight emissions are so high that if your food travelled by plane then the transport emissions are almost certainly higher than food transported any other way from further away.
Road Transport is Increasingly Carbon Intensive
Food transported by road is getting more common in the UK. Total tonnes of food moved in the UK by Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) was up 23% since 1978. Average distance travelled by each HGV food journey increased by >50% since 1978 (Defra Food Miles Report PDF). Food transported by road has gone up significantly and is increasing further each year. This matters because trucks emit higher quantities of greenhouse gases than rail or sea transport.
The Kenya Green Bean Example
Kenya supplies 70% of the green beans eaten in UK supermarkets(BBC Food miles PDF). Yet those green beans aren’t fully coming by ship. They travel on average 4,200 miles to UK shelves but part of that journey is by plane. Only a portion of those miles contribute to the large majority of that food’s transportation emissions.
Production Equals More Emissions than Transport in most Cases
For the majority of foods, emissions from production exceed emissions from transport. The amount of greenhouse gases produced to store, grow and process your food dwarf transport emissions in most cases. Production seasonality also matters, a tomato produced in a fuel intensive heated greenhouse in winter in the UK will often have a higher carbon footprint than a tomato grown in an outdoor Spanish field that gets transported to you.
Food miles are not the end all be all of food transport emissions. The production method matters more than distance majority of the time. Mode of transportation, seasonality, and how your food is produced matters more than where it’s from.
## Why Buying Local Doesn’t Guarantee Lower Carbon Footprints
Locally produced food isn’t always lower emission than food imported from far away. Sometimes it is. But sometimes local production is dirtier and for reasons you might not expect.
Out of Season UK Production Is Often Worse
Heated UK greenhouse production in winter emits way more greenhouse gases than importing from places where produce is in season. Researchers specifically looked into heated greenhouse vegetable imports versus out-of-season UK production. They consistently found higher emissions from UK produced food because of how much energy it takes to heat greenhouses in winter.
Big Farms are Often More Efficient
Small local farms may not have the same economies of scale or access to efficient processing equipment. Large factory farms use less fuel per output of food than small farms growing comparable things. They also consolidate shipments more efficiently than smaller local farms with older machinery making multiple small trips to sell their goods.
Local Doesn’t Mean Unprocessed
A farm-to-table farm shop might not have efficient storage facilities or the economies of scale to process foods efficiently. Just because you’re buying something with less packaging or produce that hasn’t been shipped doesn’t mean it wasn’t processed or refrigerated just as much.
Local Foods Travel Around the Supply Chain Too
Food bought at a farmer’s market or through a veg box scheme doesn’t just travel from farm to your house. It usually involves several vehicle journeys. A farmer may take their van to several farmer’s markets in a day. That’s more emissions on a per kilogram basis than efficient supermarket supply chains that consolidate deliveries.
Local Food Probably has Lower Transport Emissions but…
…but transport emissions are only a fraction of your food’s carbon footprint. UK produced food probably does have lower transportation emissions but producing it out of season or buying from smaller producers won’t automatically be better for the planet.
Before you buy something that claims to be locally sourced investigate further. Food miles matter, but as we’ve seen they are extremely easy to misinterpret.
## Air Freight is the Only Part of Food Miles That Truly Matters
Air freight is the 800lb gorilla of food miles. If you want to improve the emissions connected to how far your food travelled focus on air freight first and ignore the rest.
You Can Guess What Food was Air-Freighted
Air freighted food is usually very perishable or produced completely out of season. Bright-green vegetables from Africa, fresh berries in UK winter, baby salad leaves and fresh herbs from who-knows-where are all suspect. If it looks too good to have made the journey by ship it probably came by air.
Asparagus in January was almost certainly air freighted. Strawberries in March were probably air freighted too.
Air Freight is More Expensive
Food producers don’t pay the same to fly their goods into the country as you do at the checkout. Air freight costs money, so food that travels this way is usually premium food that commands higher prices.
Air Freight is Highly Seasonal
The volume of air freighted food arriving in UK ports spikes during winter when UK production is at its lowest. During Summer, most food consumed in the UK isn’t flown in because we grow a large percentage of our own food during those months.
You Won’t Know by Looking at the Label
Supermarkets in the UK provide no information as to how your food traveled to you. Country of origin doesn’t tell you if that stuff from New Zealand was shipped over or air freighted. You’ll have to do some investigating and guess based on food type, seasonality and distance.
The easiest wins in food mileage optimisation are avoiding air freighted food. Particularly those foods that would be impossible to sell to you without air freight.
## What Actually Causes Food Emissions?
You know food production matters more than transport now so what should you care about?
Meat is Where the Eggs are
Animal products > plants. It doesn’t matter if your lamb was locally sourced with residents golf cart miles. Grazed on certified magical unicorn grass and cared for by farmers who really love their livestock. Lamb and beef have emissions many times higher than fruits, vegetables, beans and pulses.
Pork and dairy are bad too but not as bad as beef and lamb. Where possible reduce your consumption of meat and especially beef.
Organic isn’t Necessarily Lower Emission
Organic foods often have higher emissions than similar non-organic foods. Larger land use for lower yields means organic farms produce more emissions per kilogram of food.
Food grown in heated greenhouses often produces worse emissions than field grown crops from warmer climates. An organically produced tomato in a heated UK greenhouse might have higher emissions than a tomato produced conventionally in a sunny locale.
Don’t forget processing…
Just because you can cook from scratch with every ingredient doesn’t mean your food hasn’t traveled on a truck. Processing food uses energy and emits greenhouse gases. Often more than shipping your food.
Bagged salad is often shipped live and then trimmed and boxed in countries like the Netherlands before heading to the UK.
…or food waste!
Food waste stinks and increases the emissions impact of all your food purchases. Buy local organic veg and then throw half away and your emissions are now twice as high per unit consumed.
Buy cheaper conventional food and keep all of it and you’ve lowered your emissions.
Buying better doesn’t matter if you waste half your food.
## Don’t Fall Prey to These Food Mile Traps
Fallacy #1: Local food is always better for the environment. Even if it’s more food miles, produce shipped in July from Spain is likely to have lower emissions than produce grown in heated greenhouses in the UK.
Fallacy #2: Food miles are all you need to consider. How your food got to you matters far less than how it was produced. There’s a big difference between air freighted lamb from New Zealand that traveled 10,000 miles and lamb trucked 30 miles from your local farm. But if that New Zealand grass-fed lamb wasfinished on imported grain their emissions might be higher than your neighbor’s conventionally raised lamb.
Fallacy #3: Transport emissions are equal between transport types. Truck, train, ship and plane don’t all emit the same amount of greenhouse gases per mile. Food transported by ship may travel thousands of miles and still have lower emissions than food transported 100 miles by diesel truck.
Fallacy #4: Premium prices justify buying local. Many staples such as fruit, vegetables and wheat have a peak season during the summer when British production accounts for most of our supply. Buy local because you want to support smaller farmers, that’s fine. But don’t pay extra for something just because it says “local” on the package.
Fallacy #5: Transport emissions are the majority of food emissions. The single biggest factor in reducing your food emissions is what you eat. Don’t prioritize buying local over reducing your meat intake.
Fallacy #6: Where food comes from is the most important factor. New Zealand lamb may be more sustainable than British lamb during summer months when British lamb requires feed and barn space while New Zealand lamb is beingfinished on grass.
Air Freight is responsible for a massive percentage of food miles emissions. By avoiding air freight you can dramatically reduce your transport emissions without becoming a stressed-out researching whats in your lunchtime sandwich.
Emissions from production are responsible for the majority of food related emissions. Focus on reducing your meat intake, waste and buying wholefoods over processed foods.
## Studies and Sources Used
UK supermarket transport was calculated based on information from multiple studies published in 2020. The UK transported 96 billion food miles in 2020(Defra Food miles Report). How far food travels on average looks to be increasing each decade.
Food miles from air freight was calculated using figures based on research that estimate emissions per kilogram of food transported.
## Who Does this Advice Apply To?
Renters or anyone living inshared accommodation – Focus more on what you eat and wasting less rather than where it’s sourced. You can make lifestyle changes that don’t require storage or cooling space. Avoid the intuitive but wrong idea that local food is always lower emission.
Country dwellers or those with more access to farmland – Buying locally might be easier with farm shops and doorstep milkmen. Don’t assume locally sourced food is always lower carbon. Living in the countryside usually means you have a good barn or storage space. Buy in bulk to save on emissions-intensive packaging and delivery trips.
City folks – You may find supermarket supply chains are far more efficient than farm shops or farmers markets for certain products. Items that don’t keep well or need refrigerating are usually transported inefficiently over long distances by multiple modes of transportation. Also, Urban dwellings tend to have very efficient systems for food waste collection and processing compared to individual compost heaps.
On a tight budget – Eating seasonal should align with the UK growing season. Which generally means cheaper food. Cutting meat from your diet and reducing waste will also save you money. All these changes will reduce your emissions more than buying expensive locally sourced goodies.
Flat dwellers with no storage space – Buying more frequently in small quantities from local stores actually increases your food miles emissions. You’re making more trips than necessary. Rather than feeling guilty about buying things from far away do your best and buy durable staples that don’t spoil in larger quantities. Plan your days so you can pick up groceries while running other errands.
## The Positive Effects of this Lifestyle Change
Emissions
Avoiding air freight could net you an 80-90% reduction in transport emissions related to food. Don’t sweat your food miles as long as you avoid air freighted food.
Food Costs
You’ll be able to spend your food budget how you want. Without being tricked into paying more for something that isn’t better for the environment.
Eating Seasonally
Eating seasonally will often have the side effect of eating local when local production is genuinely lower emission. You get the environmental benefits and lower food costs.
Reduced Decision Fatigue
Make better decisions without tracking the origins of every food item. By knowing what you should care about you spend less time worrying about everything else.
Lower Overall Food Emissions
You’ll understand that meat is the biggest contributor to your food emissions. Reducing food waste is likely to help more than anything else. And processed foods are often worse than unprocessed with same ingredients.
Shopping Normally
Supermarkets have some of the most efficient supply chains. Recognising you don’t need to feel guilty for shopping there lets you buy your food normally.
| Change | Cost | Notes |
| Avoiding Air freighted produce | -£10 to -£30 | You’ll usually pay less for food since these items are generally premium priced |
| Eating seasonally | -£15 to +£5 | If you replace expensive out of season with cheaper alternatives this will go down |
| Food waste reductions | -£20 to -£50 | You’ll save money on food you don’t throw away, biggest financial wins |
| Paying local premiums | +£10 to +£40 | You’ll only pay this if local options are available and provide environmental benefit |
Total Estimated Monthly Budget Impact: -£35 to -£30
Saving money is the nice bonus of eating in a way that’s better for the planet.
FAQs:
Q. Aren’t food miles still important?
A. Food miles matter when you’re flying your food halfway across the world. But food that’s shipped likely isn’t creating massive emissions.
Q. Should I buy from farmers markets?
A. Farmers markets can be great, but don’t fret if you can’t buy from them. As I mentioned previously Supermarkets often have very efficient supply chains. The moral downside to shopping at a supermarket is negated if you know that sometimes those farms near you produce higher emission food.
Q. Should I buy seasonal?
A. If possible, yes. Eating produce when it’s in season will usually means eating locally when local production is genuinely lower emission.
Q. Won’t avoiding air freighted food be expensive?
A. Air freight is used for premium products that command high prices. If you avoid these foods you’ll probably save money.
Q. What about battery eggs?
Yes they suck. Cage free and free-range are often business terms rather than specific descriptions of how farmers treated their animals. Nevertheless buying better egg standards where possible is still better. As is reducing your consumption of animal products in general.
