Food Miles

The report estimates that the social and environmental costs of food transport are around £9 billion every year, with more than half the costs due to road congestion.

Food transport now accounts for 25 percent of all Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) kilometres in the UK, and consumers travel an average of 898 miles a year by car to shop for food. Since 1974 the quantity of food transported by HGVs has doubled.

In 2002, food transport produced 19 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, of which 10 Million tonnes were emitted in the UK and 9 million tonnes were generated by food imports. This represents 1.8 percent of the total annual emissions of carbon dioxide.