The Environmental Impact of out of Season and Imported Produce

Have you ever stopped to think how supermarkets stock their shelves? Many are stocked with every single fruit and vegetable you can imagine. If we need a strawberry for dessert and its the middle of winter, no problem! This is great from a choice and convenience perspective but it comes at a cost to the environment.

Many everyday products such as tea, coffee and bananas are not grown in the UK, yet we rely on them daily. As consumers, we want to buy what we want, when we want – it’s all part of the modern global economy.

To meet this demand, supermarkets stock imported food from around the globe. Almost half of the food and drink that we consume in the UK is imported. A significant 30% of it coming from Europe.

Most of the food imported to the UK has been transported hundreds, if not thousands of miles to get to our plates. Along the way, boats, planes and trucks churn out carbon emissions – adding to our existing climate change concerns.

We might think that eating locally produced food is the answer. A lot of the time, it is. But not always. As usual, it’s more complex than that.

Locally grown, but out of season produce is likely to have been grown using artificial lighting and heating. This means more energy consumption and use of unnatural nutrients. Is it worth it to keep our shelves stocked with strawberries in December?

So, what’s the answer? We should aim to eat as seasonally and as locally as we can.

The Benefits of Local and Seasonal Eating

Eating seasonally and locally isn’t just beneficial to the environment. Often, if a producer hasn’t had to pay shipping costs and any import taxes, they’ll pass these cost savings onto us. Which has obvious benefits for our wallets.

It also means that our food is fresher, and hasn’t had to be kept fresh using artificial preservatives. When it comes to fruits and vegetables the fresher the better – as they lose valuable nutrients the older they get. Why waste all those vitamins whilst your fruit is sitting on a ship?

If we think back to our cave dwelling days, we could only eat what was available around us at that time of year. And whilst we’ve progressed since those days, are we really meant to eat the same food all year round?

Surely salads are for summer and roasted root vegetables are for winter? Which is fortunate, given that’s what naturally grows in the UK climate and seasons. A varied, season-dependent diet is much more rich and varied than the same old veg, week after week.

Finally, supporting local businesses helps to keep cash flowing through local communities helping them to thrive. Why give hard earned cash to huge, faceless food brands, when you could support a local farmer instead?