Thanks for posting that, Bundy Bell. For everyone's reference, the
segment on food miles begins at 29min 48sec into the audio. The
interviewee discusses life cycle assessments of food - the cost and
inputs required to produce the food, not just transport it. It's based
on this report, from Lincoln University in New Zealand, which analyses
the environmental impact of some NZ products exported to the UK,
compared to the environmental impacts of those same products produced
and sourced locally in the UK:
http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/story_images/2328_rr285_s9760.pdf

Sure enough, the report shows that imported NZ products are
environmentally friendlier than products sourced locally in the UK. It
should be noted that in the executive summary of the report it states,
"The food mile concept has potential to threaten New Zealand exports
given New Zealand’s geographical location... as 50 per cent of NZ
exports are in food and beverages, of which approximately a third go to
EU markets, the potential risk is significant" That's almost an
admission that the report is biased! My personal feeling is, that while
there may be some truth in this study, what we're seeing is business
attempting to protect their own interests more than anything else.
Unfortunately some people are using this report as an excuse to throw
the entire food miles concept out the window. We're in a time of
transition, where many people are working strenuously to avoid that
transition to sustainability because it's deemed "too hard."

As for your personal experience, it's a shame that planning ahead or
looking at the situation long-term doesn't seem to be a part of some
retailers business plans. As the price of oil rises, everything that
depends is also being affected - that includes pesticides and
fertilisers, farm machinery, transport... every aspect of farming. Just
10 days ago oil hit $100USD/barrel and has been bouncing around between
93-100 since. The price of oil doubled from the beginning of 2007 to the
beginning of 2008 - it's foolish to think it won't continue to rise.
(This article from just a couple days ago indicates that OPEC is unable
to increase production: http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7210632
) Those price increases are being passed on to the retailers and the
consumers. (See
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23035164-952,00.html -
QFFs president blames biofuels in part, which of course are being
produced because of the oil issue). By working to source their products
locally now, while there's time to transition before prices really get
out of hand, retailers would be doing themselves and their customers a
favour, long term.

However, one of our biggest challenges is to get retailers and consumers
alike to realise that price is not the only cost worth consideration. As
a part of our community, those retailers that are choosing not to do
business locally aren't supporting our local economy, which again, long
term, will be a detriment to their own business.

To close, I'll link to a transcript of an interview I did last year with
Rob Hopkins of Transition Town Totnes in Devon in the UK (online at
http://transitiontowns.org/Totnes/ )
The transcript is here: http://globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/2790

Here's a quote relating to the NZ report:

"Andi Hazelwood: There are reports that are starting to pop up that are
negating some of the things that we’re doing. They say local food may
not require less energy than imported food, that relocalization goals
are impractical, that this is bad for the economy. How do we respond to
those arguments?

Rob Hopkins: I can’t imagine how that’s based, really. I mean I think
there are some arguments that actually if we wanted to grow tomatoes all
year round in Devon, the amount of energy that it would require would be
far far more than what it would take to truck them here from Spain, for
example. But actually we don’t need tomatoes all year round. Maybe we
have tomatoes when tomatoes are in season. For me it’s a logical thing.
It’s not that we’re saying that we’re going to put an enormous fence up
around Totnes and not allow anything in or anything out. And also I’m
not of a degree of naivete that thinks that within the next two years we
are going to get everybody in Totnes growing their own carrots. I think
that what this is very much about is like the concept that Julian Darley
uses of a public parallel infrastructure. What we’re trying to do is to
build around people what will be needed in such a way that it’s not
threatening, that it’s fun, that it’s seen as a positive step forward.
We’re putting that stuff in place because that’s what is really going to
be needed in a more resilient situation. And it may be that all those
arguments about the efficiency of the globalised system really unravel
very very quickly when you run the oil price up. And what has been very
interesting here in Totnes, looking back over the history of the town,
up until the 60s and 70s there were within the town four big market
gardens. Most of the car parks within the town of Totnes used to be
working commercial market gardens that were linked to shops on the high
street, and it was a model then when we were talking about food feet,
not about food miles. And those systems became obsolete when the amount
of cheap oil in the economy was such that they just became irrelevant.
But I think the logic for me is that once the price of oil starts to
rise again, it becomes more and more expensive to import food from
outside, then the rebuilding of that local infrastructure becomes
essential. There’ll always be some trade, but the more we can produce
locally is really going to be what supports us, I think."

Cheers,

Andi