Sharing a Rant...

Dear Good Food Magazine:

Let me just start by saying, I'm a subscriber and I really enjoy your magazine every month. It has lovely, easy-to-follow recipes as well as providing inspiration in the kitchen, so I'm a big fan.

However, I was really disappointed when I came across an article on your website called '20 ways to live a greener life". The first entry on that list claimed that apples from New Zealand (among other imports) add huge emissions to the global carbon footprint as a result of their 'food miles'.

As a New Zealander (who does care passionately about eating seasonably and sustainably) reading off-hand comments like that in a publication as popular as yours really troubles me. If your staff had done some research into the food miles debate, they would have found that there have been studies showing that food exported from New Zealand around the world in fact has a lower carbon footprint than a lot of things produced in the UK and in Europe. New Zealand is a country which is fortunate enough to have a climate well suited to all manner of livestock and produce production and as a result, our agricultural practices are highly efficient and low in carbon consumption. Here - by all means read a summary of one such report if you don't believe me: http://www.ruralenterprisesolutions.co.uk/content/industryreports/viewitem.aspx?artID=4624
I'm sure if you wrote to Caroline Sauders she'd be happy to provide you with a copy of the original article.

The truth is that the food miles debate has become an outdated myth to a large degree (even your own government has accepted that it got the issue wrong based on more current research) and there are much more effective ways of centring the discussion around sustainability without unjustifiably bagging an entire nation's agricultural industry. New Zealand farmers don't receive subsidies for their efficiently grown produce, and in an awful lot of sectors of that industry, they grow it more sustainably than their counterparts on this side of the world.

It's important that you remember what an influence a publication like yours can have on consumer patterns and I would urge you to remember that sometimes research is needed into issues like food miles, rather than just a constant (rather ignorant) rehashing and of tired, out of date arguments. The issue of global sustainability is really important, so we do need to be aware of these issues, but perpetuating an out of date myth only clouds the issue and prevents us from taking the time to calmly and objectively debate the very real, ongoing problems we face. In fact, the intensive farming practices of producing livestock for meat in the States and in Europe contributes more to greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of global transport combined (see: Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman, among many others) - in the UK we should be more concerned about the fact that certain dairy companies want to replicate the American system here and establish giant, highly intensive, indoor dairy farms. These will do more damage to the UK's 'carbon footprint' than all the apples from New Zealand ever could.

Anyway, that's my two cents worth. I just wanted to bring this to your attention.

Thanks again for an otherwise excellent magazine.

Jessica Bain