food miles essay

ClimaTalk – Climate is Talking

Food miles: how much should we care about food transport.

by Marina Baptista and Belinda Ng

The journey from producers to consumers has become increasingly longer in the past decade due to the formation of a more globalised food system. The average food product travels 2400 km (1500 miles) before reaching the consumer [1]. This is mostly because modern food systems put a great emphasis on lowering the immediate costs of production, which means food often travels from where production costs are lower and environmental standards are weaker to anywhere else in the globe where it can meet consumer demand. 

To encapsulate this globalised nature of the food supply chain, the concept of “Food miles” was devised in 1994 by Professor Tim Lang. The distances travelled by foodstuffs from farm gate to consumer are generally measured as tonne-kilometres, i.e. the distance travelled in kilometres multiplied by the weight in tonnes for each foodstuff [2]. The longer the journey, the higher the CO2 emissions involved in the process. 

The value of the concept is to make the environmental impacts of long-distance transportation visible over space and time for consumers. In doing so, the importance of buying locally sourced food in order to reduce carbon emissions from the food transportation process is substantiated [3]. An added benefit of this is to incentivise greater connection between consumers and food producers within the same geographic area [4]. Thus, food miles are powerfully embedded in wider discourses pertaining to a more sustainable alternative food system based on ‘localisation’ [4]. 

However, there are several limitations of food miles as a concept. Indeed transport is both energy-intensive and polluting, particularly when it comes to road transport or air freight. Nonetheless, long-distance travel only contributes a portion of total carbon emissions in the entire globalised food systems. For instance, in the US alone, the country responsible for the most transport emissions, food transport accounted for only around 5% of the household total food emissions [5, 6].

The stages of production and packaging can have an associated heavy footprint as well [7]. For instance, a study in 1998 showed that Swedish tomatoes had a higher carbon footprint than those imported from Spain, due to the energy required to operate greenhouses in Nordic climates [8]. Of course, the source of energy used in these greenhouses is an important factor to this conclusion. If the greenhouses were instead run by renewable energy sources the result of the study could have been different. Anyhow, this study illustrates how measuring the carbon footprint of a food product is rarely as straightforward as knowing where it came from.

In addition to looking at the different stages of our food supply chain we should also look into our food choices. The largest meta-analysis of global food systems to date, published in Science in 2018 by Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemeck, made it clear that animal-related foods tend to have a significantly higher footprint than plant-based products [9]. For most foods, particularly the great emitters, the study concluded that over 80% of their associated greenhouse gases emissions came from either land use or other farm-stage emissions, while transport accounted for less than 10% of the total emissions [9].

Making conscious purchasing decisions is a task that would be greatly enhanced by the provision of more accessible data about different food types and their sources. In conclusion, although the component of transportation remains important for consumers to consider, it should always be accounted for alongside other aspects as well. The energy source used in the stages of production, food packaging, and our food choices per se, are examples of other factors that are at least as important as food miles when considering how environmentally friendly our food is. 

Marina is a second-year student in the Environmental Policy and Law master’s degree programme at the University of Eastern Finland, majoring in International and Climate Change Law. She is from Brazil, where she previously got her Bachelor of Laws degree and some practical experience in the legal field. She is particularly passionate about helping animals live better lives and a strong believer in individual contribution.

Belinda is a recent Geography graduate from the University of Cambridge.  She is passionate about climate change issues in relation to food security and sustainability. She has led various sustainable food initiatives whilst at university, and is also the founder of a sustainability podcast called ‘sustain-a-pod’ back in her hometown of Hong Kong.

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Home — Essay Samples — Government & Politics — Transportation — Food Miles and Their Environmental Impact

Food Miles and Their Environmental Impact

• Categories: Transportation

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Words: 1742 |

Published: Sep 25, 2018

Words: 1742 | Pages: 3 | 9 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, road transportation factor, production footprint factor, methodology.

• I visited two malls - Inorbit mall and Infinity 2 mall both in Malad, Mumbai. My main purpose to visit these malls is because of the presence of giant hypermarkets such as Big Bazaar and Star Bazaar.
• Through secondary research, I gathered and analyzed data from the past which dealt with consumer taste and preferences for vegetables and other food items, in Mumbai.

Food miles in perspective

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• ‘Food miles’ have larger climate impact than thought, study suggests

Ayesha Tandon

Global “food miles” emissions are higher than previously thought – accounting for nearly one-fifth of total food-system emissions – new research suggests.

The study, published in Nature Food , estimates the carbon footprint of the global food transport system. The authors assess the entire food supply chain – considering emissions from transporting fertilisers, machinery and animal feed as well as from moving the food itself.

They find that in a single year, global food miles were responsible for 3bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions – 3.5-7.5 times larger than previous estimates.

“Food-miles emissions are driven by the affluent world,” the study says. It finds that while “high income nations” represent only about 12.5% of the world’s population, they are responsible for 52% of international food miles and 46% of the associated emissions.

The authors also reflect on the pros and cons of buying local food – an often-touted solution for reducing food emissions. The study showed that ending all international food transport would cut food-miles emissions by just 9%, highlighting the relatively greater importance of other dietary choices in tackling the climate impact of the sector.

As such, the lead author of the study tells Carbon Brief that while eating local does reduce emissions, this should be paired with eating seasonal produce and reducing meat consumption to limit dietary emissions.

This study presents “a significant deviation from the former scientific mainstream opinion that transport is no major contributor to emissions from the food system”, a scientist not involved in the research tells Carbon Brief. However, he adds that he would “interpret the results with caution”, as emissions may be overestimated in places.

The paper has triggered debate over the definition of the term “food miles”, which typically considers the distance from where the food is produced to where it is consumed, rather than encompassing the entire food supply chain.

‘Food miles emissions’

Feeding the world is an expensive undertaking. Food production uses up half of the Earth’s habitable land, and “food systems” – a catch-all term to describe the way humans produce, process, transport and consume food – are responsible for one third of all human-caused emissions.

Past studies suggest that transporting food has a small carbon footprint when compared to the rest of the food system. However, many do not to account for emissions throughout the entire food supply chain. The new study aims to fill this gap and includes emissions from transporting fertilisers, machinery and animal feed as well as the more obvious shipping and vehicle emissions from sending food products around the world.

The authors consider 74 regions, 37 economic sectors such as chemicals and machinery, and four transportation modes. They then use a “multi-region input–output model” to assess the emissions produced by transporting food and other components of the food system across the entire supply chain. This is referred to as “food-system miles”.

The plot below shows total food-system miles in “tonne-kilometres”, indicating the distance travelled per tonne of food, on the left. The central figures show the resulting emissions. And total food system emissions, including emissions from land-use change, food production, transportation and consumption, are shown on the right.

Each graphic is split into sectors, including components of the food system such as meat (pink), and dairy (white), as well as related sectors such as manufacturing (dark blue). The bottom panel splits each component into “domestic” (left of the zero line) and “international” (right) emissions and miles travelled.

Maintaining the current global food system requires food and related equipment to be transported a total of 22tn “tonne-kilometres” per year, according to the study. This drives 3bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), accounting for almost one-fifth of total food system emissions, it finds.

Dr Ulrich Kreidenweis – a researcher at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Bio-economy , who was not involved in the study – tells Carbon Brief that the new study presents “a significant deviation from the former scientific mainstream opinion that transport is no major contributor to emissions from the food system”.

For example, a study published last year finds that transport is responsible for only 4.8% of total food system emissions. However, this study includes refrigeration separately, stating that the “cold chain” of keeping food in a temperature-controlled environment throughout transit and sales accounts for 5% of global food system emissions.

“​​Investigating transportation emissions along the whole global food supply chain is an important step in understanding food-mile emissions”, adds Dr Paul Behrens , an assistant professor at Leiden University , who was also not involved in the paper. He tells Carbon Brief that this paper presents “the first estimate of its kind”.

It is well known that meat production is highly carbon intensive , requiring extensive stretches of land for rearing livestock and producing animal feed. As expected, the plot from the study shows that meat is responsible for almost two-fifths of total food system emissions – far outstripping any other food type. However, meat accounts for only 4% of all food transport emissions.

Meanwhile, fruits and vegetables are responsible for one-fifth of global food miles, but account for over one-third of transport emissions. This is because fruits and vegetables require energy-intensive refrigeration throughout their journey, and weigh a lot compared to other food types, the study explains.

Global supply chain

The global food system is complex and interlinked. Producing red meat consumed in China, for example, can involve production steps from almost every continent on the planet. 

The plot below shows an example of these steps, including machinery, manufacturing and the chemicals required to produce animal feed. Bubbles present food production emissions, while arrows represent the food-miles emissions.

To produce red meat for consumption in China, chemicals from Canada are sent to the US by road to grow fruits and vegetables, and to Brazil by ship to grow soybeans. These are used to feed livestock in China. Meanwhile, coal imported from Australia and Indonesia is used for manufacturing, along with machinery from Germany.

To map food-mile flows across the entire global supply-chain network, the authors were required to model more than 30m direct trade connections. The plot below shows the top 100 bilateral flows – from one country to another – of international food-miles emissions (top) and the same per person (bottom). Thicker arrows indicate greater emissions.

The plot highlights some of the hotspots of trading activity in certain regions – for example, in Europe and China – while others see less traffic. Most notable is the lack of trading with countries in Africa.

“Food-miles emissions are driven by the affluent world,” the study states. The authors find that high-income countries – where per-capita GDP is above US$25,000 – represent only about 12.5% of the world’s population, but drive around half of international food miles and emissions.

Meanwhile, representing about half of the global population, low-income countries with per-capita GDP below US$3,000 are responsible for only 12% and 20% of international food miles and emissions, respectively, the study finds. It adds:

“High-income regions, including Oceania, Europe and North America, clock up per-capita food miles and emissions 2.7–2.8 times that of other aggregated broad regions.”

Dr Mengyu Li from the University of Sydney is the lead author of the study. She explains that high per-capita emissions in rich counties are in part due to the wide choice of food available there. For example, she notes “the year-round habit of consumers in rich countries for non-seasonal food products that need to be shipped from elsewhere” – which is less prevalent in poorer countries.

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Meanwhile, countries with high populations and large land areas generally have the highest domestic emissions, the study finds. It notes that two-thirds of domestic emissions come from China, India, the US and Russia.

Buying local 

Buying locally sourced food is often touted as an easy way to reduce dietary emissions. However, the paper finds that while international transport drives 71% of food miles, domestic transport emissions are 1.3 times higher overall. This is because 93% of international food transport relies on shipping, which has a relatively low carbon intensity, the study says, while 94% of domestic transportation is caused by more polluting road transport. Meanwhile, the authors find that less than 0.25% of “freight tasks” moved by air.

Nevertheless, switching to a local diet can still reduce emissions – especially in richer countries. The authors found that if the entire world were to switch to a purely domestic food supply, food-miles emissions would be reduced by a modest 0.27bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent. They add that 0.24bn tonnes of this would come from high-income countries.

Carbon Brief asked lead author Li whether eating local is still a useful way to combat food emissions. She says that “localising food supply still leads to emissions reductions”, but adds:

“For consumers, in addition to shifting towards a plant-based diet, eating local seasonal alternatives is ideal, especially among affluent countries.”

The paper “really emphasises the importance of electrifying goods vehicles, switching to rail and/or moving food production closer to population centres,” Behrens tells Carbon Brief. He adds that the paper “combines an impressive set of different data sources in a novel way”.

However, Kreidenweis says that he “would interpret the results with caution”, as the authors “have taken several decisions that may lead to a strong overestimation of food-miles emissions”. For example, he says that the mass of food transported and emissions from some modes of transport may be overestimated.

For example, he says, the study assumes that 99.4% of domestic coal transport happens by road, whereas in reality, trains transport nearly 70% of coal deliveries in the US at least part of the way from mines to consumer. 

Li et al (2022), Nature Food. Global food-miles account for nearly 20% of total food-systems emissions. doi:10.1038/s43016-022-00531-w Update: This piece was updated on 24/06/2022 to include a line on the debate around the term “food miles” that the paper has triggered.

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Reports • Food Facts

The Food Miles Report - the dangers of long-distance food transport

Food is being transported longer and longer distances – 'food miles' – from producer to consumer. In the UK, comparatively little of the food we consume comes from local producers; and much will have been transported over great distances.

Re-print of the original 1994 publication, with an updated cover and foreword.

Cheap non-renewable fossil fuel energy makes intensive agriculture and long-distance transportation economically viable, and has allowed food production and distribution to become global industries. Prices in shops do not reflect the full cradle-to-grave environmental and social costs.

But the concept of food miles isn’t just about distances. This report explores some of the wider social and ecological implications of international food trade, and suggests how to reduce excessive, unnecessary food miles.

Report contents

Foreword to the 2011 reprint of the Food Miles Report 

Foreword to the original 1994 Food Miles Report 

Summary of the Food Miles Report 

• Introduction 
• The food miles food chain 
• Food Miles: Issues and implications 
• Forces behind Food Miles 
• Who reaps the profits? 
• Reducing Food Miles 

Recommendations 

The Food Miles Report: Introduction 

1. Food Miles case studies 

• Case study 1: rotten apples 
• Case study 2: oranges are not the only fruit 
• Case study 3: luxury lines in fresh produce
• Case study 4: salad days over for UK producers 
• Case study 5: milk – the demise of door-step deliveries 
• Case study 6: meat miles 
• Case study 7: Chocolate habits 
• Case study 8: a fishy business 
• Case study 9: the bread-line 
• Case study 10: the real cost of strawberry yoghurt 

2. The ‘Food Miles’ food chain 

• Agricultural production 
• Processing, packaging and preservation 
• Energy use in the food chain 

3. Food Miles: Issues and implications 

• Environmental effects 
• Small farms and rural communities 
• Animal welfare 
• Public health 

4. Forces behind Food Miles 

• Subsidised transport 
• Subsidised agriculture 
• Retail concentration 
• Food manufacturers 
• Aid, trade, debt and development 
• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 
• Consumer choice and information 
• Food From Britain (FFB) 

  5. Reducing Food Miles 

• Agenda 21 
• New patterns of consumption 
• Local produce buying schemes 
• The urban grower 
• Fair trade 
• The price is right 
• The case for sustainable agriculture 
• Assistance to developing countries 
• Reducing the food deficit 
• Supermarkets and food processors 

Conclusion 

• Action by individuals 
• Action by farmers and growers 
• Action by food retailers and processors 
• Action by local authorities 
• Action by national governments 

Glossary  Useful addresses  References 

The Food Miles Report - the dangers of long-distance food transport 62pp - 2011 | 1293Kb

Published Thursday 3 February 2011

Food Facts : A series of short reports on over a dozen different products, shows how people's shopping choices - as well as government policy - can protect the environment, enhance social justice and improve health.

62pp - 2011 1293Kb

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Food Miles: Background and Marketing

By Holly Hill, NCAT Research Specialist

Eggs loaded for trucking to market near Chesterfield, SC. Photo by Dave Warren. Courtesy of USDA.

The term  food miles  refers to the distance food travels from the location where it is grown to the location where it is consumed, or in other words, the distance food travels from farm to plate. Recent studies have shown that this distance has been steadily increasing over the last 50 years. Studies estimate that processed food in the United States travels over 1,300 miles, and fresh produce travels over 1,500 miles, before being consumed. This publication addresses how food miles are calculated, investigates how food miles affect producers and consumers, and evaluates methods for curbing the energy intensiveness of our food transportation system.

Introduction

The food mile is a fairly new concept referring to the distance food travels from the location where it is produced to the location where it will eventually be consumed. Food miles have become one method for evaluating the sustainability of the global food system in terms of energy use. This concept has received an increasing amount of attention over the last decade as climate change patterns have become ever more apparent. This publication investigates the amount of energy invested in food transportation, addresses how food miles affect both producers and consumers and suggests possibilities for creating a more sustainable food system.

The United States food system has changed substantially over the last 50 years due to a large variety of circumstances including the globalization and centralization of the food industry and the concentration of the food supply onto fewer, larger suppliers.

A report released in 1998 by the USDA found that 80% of the meat industry is controlled by only four firms.(1) In his essay entitled “Food Democracy,” Brian Halweil states that half of the food items in a typical supermarket are produced by no more than 10 multinational food and beverage companies.(2) The majority of food consumed today passes through a complex, indirect network of a few large, centralized producers, processors, transporters and distributors before reaching the consumer.

An additional change in the food system is the increasing trend of these multinational firms sourcing food from outside of regional, state and even national boundaries in order to provide consistent products at low prices. Figure 1 illustrates the steady increase in world agricultural trade between 1961 and 2000.(3)

Figure 1. Volume of World Agricultural Trade, 1961-2000. Source: Brian Halweil. Home Grown: The Case for Local Food in a Global Market. 2002.

The development of global food transport systems has resulted in higher consumer expectations. Consumers now have the ability to choose from a wide variety of food items, regardless of the season or their location, all at a low price.

The ability to enjoy consistent produce and exotic ingredients at all times of the year is a luxury that, according to many food system analysts, has its price. The farther food travels and the longer it takes en route to the consumer, the more freshness declines and the more nutrients are lost. Many fruits and vegetables are engineered for a long shelf life, sacrificing taste and nutrition for preservation.

As large multinational companies gain control over the food industry, small local farmers suffer. Since 1979, 300,000 farmers have gone out of business and those remaining are receiving 13% less for every consumer dollar for farm goods.(1) Large distributors are able to drive prices down on imported goods, forcing many small farms to either export their crop as a raw commodity or replace regional crops with something more profitable. For example, in 1870 100% of the apples consumed in Iowa were produced in Iowa. By 1999, Iowa farmers grew only 15% of the apples consumed in the state.(4) This phenomenon limits the potential for local self-sufficiency and increases dependency on outside sources.

Changes in the food system have resulted in a broad range of social and economic implications, but the present food system also has an environmental cost. The farther food travels, the more fossil fuels are required for transport. The burning of fossil fuels leads to the emission of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming. The following sections will investigate the extent to which food miles contribute to high energy consumption levels and CO2 emissions.

The Energy Embedded in Our Food

The carbon footprint of the food system.

While studies vary, a typical estimate is that the food industry accounts for 10% of all fossil fuel use in the United States.(5) Of all the energy consumed by the food system, only about 20% goes towards production; the remaining 80% is associated with processing, transport, home refrigeration, and preparation.

Recent research at the University of Chicago has investigated the energy consumption of the food system and compared it to the energy consumption associated with personal transportation in the United States. Personal transportation is often recognized as a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, as evident in the movement towards higher efficiency vehicles. This study found, however, that the average American uses between 170 and 680 million BTUs of energy in personal transportation annually and roughly 400 million BTUs in food consumption.(6) The food industry accounts for a considerable portion of energy consumption in the United States and merits closer evaluation.

Figure 2. Transportation accounts for 14% of energy use within the food system. Source: Heller and Keoleian. Life Cycle-Based Sustainability Indicators for Assessment of the U.S. Food System. 2000.

According to one study, food transportation accounts for 14% of energy use within the food system. Figure 2 demonstrates the energy use required for each step of the food industry process.(7) Food miles, although a fraction of the U.S. energy consumption as a whole, remain a considerable source of carbon emissions, especially when considering that the United States is the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, accounting for 23% of the global total at nearly 1,600 million metric tons annually.

The U.S. food system alone uses as much energy as France’s total annual energy consumption.(8)

Calculating Food Miles

How far does food travel.

The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture has been the leading researcher of food miles in the United States and has conducted several studies comparing the distance food travels if it is sourced locally rather than conventionally. A 1998 study examined the distance that 30 conventional fresh produce items traveled to reach the Chicago Terminal Market.

The Leopold Center found that only two food items, pumpkins and mushrooms, traveled less than 500 miles. Six food items including grapes, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and green peas traveled over 2,000 miles to reach the Chicago market. The average distance traveled amounted to 1,518 miles.(9) Figure 3 shows the distance that select produce items traveled before reaching their destination at the Chicago Terminal Market.

Figure 3. Distance Produce Traveled to Reach Chicago Market. Source: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Another study conducted in the Waterloo Region of Southwestern Ontario investigated the food miles associated with 58 commonly eaten, imported foods. The study found that each food item traveled an average of 4,497 kilometers or 2,811 miles, producing 51,709 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.(10)

These calculated distances don’t include the distance consumers travel to shop for food or the distance that waste food travels to be disposed of. It is apparent that food is traveling long distances, but the extent to which food miles have an effect on the environment is more complex. The following sections will cover the formulas used to calculate food miles and investigate the energy involved in the transportation of food.

How Are Food Miles Calculated?

A series of formulas for calculating food miles has been developed and has become widely accepted. Calculating the distance a food item has traveled varies in complexity depending on whether the item is made up of a single ingredient or multiple ingredients and the mode of transportation used to carry the item.

The Weighted Average Source Distance (WASD) formula was developed by Annika Carlsson-Kanyama in 1997 and takes into account the amount of food transported in weight and the distance that it travels from the place of production to the place of sale. Fruits and vegetables and other items consisting of only one ingredient would utilize the WASD formula for calculating food miles.

The Weighted Total Source Distance (WTSD) formula was developed by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and accounts for multiple-ingredient foods by calculating the weight and distance traveled for each ingredient. Foods like flavored yogurt, bread, and other processed foods would employ the WTSD formula for calculating food miles.

While both WASD and WTSD convey an estimate of the distance food travels between the producer and consumer, neither formula addresses greenhouse gas emissions associated with this distance traveled. The Weighted Average Emissions Ratio (WAER) formula takes into account both distance and the associated greenhouse gas emissions for different modes of transportation. This formula was developed by the nonprofit organization LifeCycles, in 2004.

For detailed information about food miles formulas and calculating food miles, see the Leopold Center’s publication,  Calculating Food Miles for a Multiple Ingredient Food Product .

Mode of Transportation

As suggested by the Weighted Average Emissions Ratio formula, the mode by which food is transported is an important factor when considering the environmental impact of food miles. A food item traveling a short distance may produce more CO2 than an item with high food miles, depending on how it is transported.

Figure 4. Energy use and emissions for different modes of freight transport. Source: Transport for a Sustainable Future: The Case for Europe.(11)

Figure 4 contains the estimated values of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for four different transportation modes measured in the UK.(11) Air transportation is, by far, the most energy intensive means of transporting food and other goods.

A study released in the UK in 2005 found that air transport is the fastest growing mode of food distribution and although air transport accounts for only 1% of food transport in the UK, it results in 11% of the country’s CO2 emissions. The UK report also estimated that the social and economic costs of food transport including accidents, noise and congestion amount to over 9 billion British pounds every year or 18 billion American dollars.(12)

Food Miles and Energy

Is local food less energy intensive.

Proponents of reducing food miles often suggest that buying local food will reduce the amount of energy involved in the transportation process, as food sourced locally travels shorter distances. The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture has conducted several studies that compare the distance traveled by conventional versus local foods. Figure 5, compiled by the Leopold Center, compares food miles for local versus conventional produce traveling to Iowa. In all cases, the locally grown food travels a significantly shorter distance than the conventionally sourced food.

Figure 5: Food miles for local versus conventional produce. Source: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.e

Another study conducted by the Leopold Center in 2001 investigated the distance that food traveled to institutional markets such as hospitals and restaurants in Iowa using three different food sources: conventional, Iowa-based regional and Iowa-based local. The study found that food sourced from the conventional system used 4 to 17 times more fuel than the locally sourced food and emitted 5 to 17 times more CO2.(4) The Leopold Center used this information to estimate the distance, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions that could potentially be saved by replacing 10% of the Iowa’s current food system with regional or locally sourced food. This information is displayed in Figure 6. It is interesting to note that when the transportation method was taken into account, the local food system required more energy and emitted more CO2 than the regional system. This is because the trucks supplying food locally had a smaller capacity, therefore requiring more trips and logging more miles.

Figure 6: Estimated fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and distance traveled for conventional, Iowa-based regional, and Iowa-based local food systems for produce. Source: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

It has been shown that local food systems do reduce food miles, which in turn tend to reduce energy consumption, but there are exceptions. Local transportation systems may not always be as efficient as regional systems, depending on the mode of transport and load capacity.

Does Reducing Food Miles Reduce Energy Use?

A Japanese group, Daichio-Mamoru Kai (The Association to Preserve the Earth) conducted a study that found that a typical Japanese family could reduce their CO2emissions by 300 kilograms annually by eating locally.(13) The Canadian Waterloo Region study mentioned above estimated that sourcing the 58 food items in the study locally and regionally rather than globally could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 49,485 tons annually. This is the equivalent of removing 16,191 vehicles from the road.(11)

The food miles issue becomes even more complex when considering factors besides distance traveled and mode of transportation. The energy required to grow some foods in unsuitable climates may override the energy of transporting food from locations where the food is more easily grown. For example, a Swedish study found that tomatoes traveling from Spain to Sweden were less energy intensive than tomatoes raised in Sweden, because of the process by which they were grown. The Spanish tomatoes were raised in the open ground, while the Scandinavian climate required tomatoes to be raised in heated greenhouses utilizing more fossil fuels.(4)

A New Zealand report found that exporting some foods to the UK consumes less energy than producing the same food in the UK because the agricultural system in New Zealand tends to use less fertilizer and raises year round grass-fed livestock, which uses less energy than housing and feeding animals.(14)

The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) released a report in 2005, which determined that food miles alone are not a valid indicator of the sustainability of the food system. In some cases, reducing food miles may reduce energy use, but there may be other social, environmental or economic trade-offs. The consequences of food transport are complex and require a group of indicators to determine the global impact of food miles.(13)

Life Cycle Assessment

There is increasing significance in considering all stages of energy consumption in the food system. Many organizations have investigated the idea of life-cycle-based analysis to determine the sustainability of the food system.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method used to analyze the consumption and environmental burdens associated with a product. LCA takes into account energy input and output involved in all stages of the life cycle including production, processing, packaging, transport and retirement. Life cycle evaluation accounts for a matrix of sustainability indicators beyond greenhouse gas emissions, including resource depletion, air and water pollution, human health impacts and waste generation. This method provides a more holistic approach to assessing the impact our food choices have on the environment.(7)

Life cycle assessments of various conventional food products have found that the current food production and consumption patterns are unsustainable.(15) Adopting a “life cycle thinking” approach to food consumption would be a productive method for increasing the sustainability of the food system.

What Producers Should Know

Cranberries loaded on truck for shipment. Photo by Earl J. Otis, USDAC

For producers, reducing food miles means selling products to a more local or regional market. While, this may be an intimidating prospect for farmers who have no experience with alternative markets, the opportunities are significant and diverse, including farmers’ markets, CSAs and farm-to-institution programs, all of which are looking for local producers. The following sections briefly examine some of the markets and methods available for a producer looking to reduce the energy involved in transporting food.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing allows farmers to compete with wholesale market channels and mass supermarket systems, thereby creating a local food network and reducing the distance that food travels. Direct marketing networks could include farmers’ markets, wholesale food terminals and community-supported agriculture. The ATTRA publication  Direct Marketing  offers information about alternative marketing systems, with an emphasis on value-added crops.

Farmers Markets and CSAs

Selling produce at farmers’ markets is one alternative marketing strategy available for producers. By removing brokers from the distribution chain, farmers are able to reap a greater profit. Farmers’ markets also benefit community interaction and economic development. For more information about how to join or start a farmers’ market successfully, see the ATTRA publication  Farmers Markets: Marketing and Business Guide .

Community supported agriculture (CSA) offers another option for marketing to a local or regional clientele. CSAs typically have members that are “share-holders” in the farm, paying for the anticipated costs of the farm operation. The ATTRA publication  Community Supported Agriculture  contains information about production considerations and using the Internet as a means of information dissemination to members.

The number of farmers’ markets and CSAs has grown substantially over the last decade indicating both the potential of success for the farmer and the growing demands of consumers for fresh, local food.

Farm-to-Institution Programs

Selling food directly to schools, hospitals, prisons and other institutions is becoming an increasingly popular option. Selling food to institutions creates a reliable market for the farmer and provides great health and economic benefits to the consumer. Farm-to-institution programs also reduce food miles. The University of Montana’s Farm to College program estimated that replacing a year’s supply of conventionally sourced hamburgers and French fries with local ingredients saved 43,000 gallons of fuel and the associated greenhouse gasses from being emitted.(16)

Ecolabels offer one method for educating consumers about locally grown, sustainably raised foods, and have proven effective in product marketing. An ecolabel is a seal or a logo indicating that a product has met a certain set of environmental and/or social standards or attributes.

Food miles ecolabel example. Source: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture has researched the impact that labeling food with ecolabels containing information such as food miles and CO2 emissions has on consumers. The study aimed to determine consumer opinion of locally produced food and food miles. Surveys found that consumers were more responsive to labels that focused on the food product’s freshness and quality rather than environmental impact or CO2 emissions. Consumers perceive that locally grown food is fresher; therefore ecolabels that contain information such as “locally grown by family farmers” may be effective in influencing consumer food choices. The study also found that consumers are willing to pay more for food that has low environmental impacts.(17) Figure 7 is an example of a food label containing food miles information.

The Western Montana Sustainable Growers Union is a group of 12 Missoula-area organic farms that has developed the “Homegrown” label, which informs consumers that the food item they are purchasing was grown within 150 miles. Producers in the group pledge “to grow naturally, protect air and water, maintain fair labor practices and, most importantly, to sell and buy in their communities.” Groups such as this are jumping up across the country and having an impact on their markets.(18)

Consumer Considerations

Consumer demand.

Producers may question the extent to which consumers are using food miles as a basis for their food choices. In general food choices are no doubt based on price, taste and appearance and a large section of the public knows and cares little about climate change, especially with regard to food choices.(19)

There has been increasing demand for food produced in accordance with ethical and environmental standards, however, such as organic and fair trade. Food mile concerns may grow as well. Increasing food security and the domestic supply chain may be other arguments for reducing food miles.

Why Consumers Should Care About Food Miles

For consumers, convenience and cost are often driving factors when purchasing food. The choices consumers make, however, can have a great deal of influence on the direction our food system is headed. Reducing the energy intensiveness of our food has several economic, social and environmental benefits. Consumers who are reducing their food mile footprint:

• Enjoy fresher, healthier food
• Support local farmers
• Keep their money in the community
• Know where their food comes from
• Reduce their carbon footprint

Diet and Energy

Buying local and regional food is just one of many dietary choices with important environmental consequences. The FAO estimates that livestock are responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.(20) A study at the University of Chicago compared the energy consumption associated with animal-based diets versus plant-based diets and found that consuming a typical American diet of both animals and plants results in 1,485 kg more CO2 than a diet based on plant sources only.

This study concludes that “For a person consuming a red meat diet at 35% of calories from animal sources, the added GHG burden above that of a plant eater equals the difference between driving a Camry and an SUV. These results clearly demonstrate the primary effect of one’s dietary choices on one’s planetary footprint, an effect comparable in magnitude to the car one chooses to drive.”(6)

Local vs. Organic

There has been a great amount of public interest over the last few years in organic food systems. This is an indication of consumers’ increasing awareness of where their food is coming from. Organic food is grown without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Since these chemicals are usually made from natural gas and other fossil fuels, through a highly energy-intensive process, eliminating synthetic fertilizer and pesticides can significantly reduce the amount of energy required for production. However, increased demand for organics has resulted in retailers sourcing organically grown food from around the globe, creating increased emissions in the transportation process. Some locally grown nonorganic foods may be less energy intensive than organic foods traveling long distances.

When evaluating our food options, the decisions are complex, especially if you want to make sustainable choices. Local, organic, fair-trade and other forms of sustainably produced food all play a role in creating sustainable food consumption patterns. The following table provides some guidelines for making ethical food decisions.

Table 1. What individuals can do to reduce food miles. Adapted from Brian Halweil’s Home Grown: the Case for Local Food in a Global Market. 2002. Learn what foods are in season in your area and try to build your diet around them. Shop at a local farmers market. People living in areas without a farmers’ market might try to start one themselves, linking up with interested neighbors and friends and contacting nearby farmers and agricultural officials for help. People can do the same with CSA subscription schemes. Eat minimally processed, packaged and marketed food. Generally speaking, the less processing and packaging you see, the less energy went into production and marketing, the less global warming pollution was created. Ask the manager or chef of your favorite restaurant how much of the food on the menu is locally grown, and then encourage him or her to source food locally. Urge that the share be increased. People can do the same at their local supermarket or school cafeteria. Consolidate trips when grocery shopping. Consider carpooling, public transportation, or a bike trailer for hauling groceries to reduce your personal contribution to food miles. Take a trip to a local farm to learn what it produces. Limit the amount of meat you consume and when you do buy meat, look for organic or free-range meat produced on sustainable farms. Produce a local food directory that lists all the local food sources in your area, including CSA arrangements, farmers’ markets, food co–ops, restaurants emphasizing seasonal cuisine and local produce, and farmers willing to sell direct to consumers year-round. Buy extra quantities of your favorite fruit or vegetable when it is in season and experiment with drying, canning, jamming, or otherwise preserving it for a later date. Plant a garden and grow as much of your own food as possible. Speak to your local politician about forming a local food policy council to help guide decisions that affect the local foodshed.

Food Miles Tools

Food Carbon Emissions Calculator This calculator allows users to calculate the carbon emissions related to your food choices, including transportation, waste, and quantity.

Food Carbon Footprint Calculator A tool for residents within the UK to calculate their food carbon footprint to better understand the extent to which food decisions impact global warming.

LCA Food Database A tool for acquiring an aggregated description of emissions, waste and the resource use from soil to kitchen per unit of different food items.

Iowa Produce Market Potential Calculator This calculator was designed to help users determine expanding markets in Iowa if consumers ate more locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables rather than produce from conventional sources outside the state.

Truck on highway near Petersburg, West Virginia. Photo: Ken Hammond, USDA

Food miles are a growing cause of concern due to the greenhouse gas emissions released through the transportation of our food—and rightly so, as food miles consume a considerable amount of energy. However, we must consider the many complexities of the food system besides just the distance our food is traveling. Other important issues include the mode of transportation, the production method, and packaging considerations, as well as our own personal dietary choices. Each consumer food decision provides an opportunity to make a difference (large or small) in the way energy is used and greenhouse gases are emitted. At the same time, growing consumer interest in local and regional foods is creating new marketing opportunities and new possibilities for partnerships with agricultural producers.

Food Miles: Background and Marketing By Holly Hill NCAT Research Specialist IP312 Slot 311 © NCAT

This publication is produced by the National Center for Appropriate Technology through the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture program, under a cooperative agreement with USDA Rural Development. This publication was also made possible in part by funding from the USDA Risk Management Agency. ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. 

Originally Published 2008, IP312

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Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics pp 1175–1180 Cite as

• James McWilliams 3  
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• First Online: 01 January 2019

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Introduction

The concept of food miles has been relevant for as long as humans have swapped food. Every bill of lading archiving the contents of every inbound ship was an implicit reference to a point of origin and, therefore, a record of the distance food traveled. Not incidentally, in most cases, the further afield a particular good originated from the point of consumption, the more it was valued for its exotic qualities. Throughout most of human history, the market rewarded distance and novelty. The more miles traveled, the better.

By the late twentieth century, popular evaluations of food production had shifted into the new framework of global sustainability. An emerging emphasis on the environmental consequences of food production, initially inspired by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), fostered critical changes in how consumers evaluated responsibly produced food. Perhaps most notably, consumers now took an interest in reducing the distance food traveled between “farm and...

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Food Miles Essay Example

• Pages: 3 (651 words)
• Published: January 4, 2017
• Type: Research Paper

A food mile is the distance food travels from the farm to the store where you buy it, and these miles are costly to the environment. They are among the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. The concept of food miles started in the early 1990’s in the United Kingdom . The more the food miles that are attached to a particular food, the less sustainable and the less environmentally the food is desired. Professor Tim Lang at the Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment (SAFE) was the person behind conceiving the food miles, which appeared in a report ‘The food miles report’.

The report consisted of the highlights of the hidden ecological, social and economic consequences of food production to consumers in a simple way, one which had objective reality but also disadvantages. In

United Kingdom, food travels on 30 billion kilometres each year, different means of transport are used to transport the food for example water (boats), air and road transport(cars, lorries). The United Kingdom transports food exporting and importing.

They mainly import food from different African countries that have fresh food for example Kenya which has been one of the quickest countries to develop in the agriculture sector they grow beans, coffee which are freshly grown compared to some of the food that’s already processed. Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia are following in the importing business. The most common form of transporting food once it has reached the country of destination is by lorry. 25% of all journeys made in the UK will be taking food from destination to destination until it has been stacked on a supermarket shelf.

style="text-align: justify">These journeys account for 25% of CO2 emissions. Studies show that 60% of carbon dioxide is produced through road transport from the cars, 20% through air transport and 10% through rail and water. Transportation of food costs the government so much money as most of the imported food is seasonally, the population also spends money having to go to the supermarkets and shops to buy food as half of population does not live near by the shops, and the mean average Britton travels an estimated 135 miles to go shopping.

It has been stated that if people suggested buying food originating from within a 20km radius from our locality, the country would save over two billion pounds in congestion and environmental costs. Food grown locally is more environmentally friendly. The reason usually given for this is that imported food e. g. New Zealand lamb, require a lot of fossil fuels and produce a lot of carbon emission to get it to the market. Locally grown food, require less fossil fuel and therefore put out less carbon emissions and is better on a global scale. The media have surfaced a huge image regarding the New Zealand apples that are transported to the UK .

The issue is how the produce is carried by air. Air transport is a very high producer of greenhouse gases and the concept of produce being flown from one side of the world to the other is repellent to many environmentally aware people. However, products like the New Zealand lamb going to the UK are not transported by air, but are freighted by ship, which uses less fossil fuel

and has less emission per kg of produce. The amount of fossil fuel used to import produce pales beside the amount of fossil fuel consumed taking the produce from the point of entry into the country to the depot, to the supermarket and then to the consumer’s home.

In conclusion food miles does not take into account the wider economic benefits that trade provides to consumers. For instance, it is difficult to pin point to whether how changes in preferences by Australian food consumers would affect regional development. A stronger consumer preference towards food products with lower food miles is also potentially harmful to Australian food exporters, as well as those in developing countries.

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IELTS Writing 2 Topic: Food

Updated On Oct 25, 2021

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Today’s fresh food like vegetables or fruits travels thousands of miles from the rural areas or farms before it reaches customers in cities or urban areas. Why is this? Is this a positive or negative trend?

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Direct Question Essay

Introduction

• Paraphrase the topic of the essay.
• Paragraph 1 – The spread of food to far-away places is cost-ineffective. Such fees related to gasoline, transportation delivery, staff management and other types of insurance are way beyond the pocket of suppliers. However, economically, it bestows upon both producers and consumers more noticeable benefits.
• Paragraph 2 – The second disadvantage of this trend is believed to trigger the inability to control the quality of food and growing dependence of each nation. The past has shown that Roman, as a consequence of relying on food chain supply of other nations, ever saw its power going into steep decline whereas the task of far-distance distribution can hardly ensure the thorough examination between suppliers and buyers, and trigger unwanted virus damaging the food.
• Conclude the essay by summarizing the topic and providing an inference.

Sample Essay

We all need food to survive. It is thought that with the domination of cutting-edge technology, such as airplane, food is accessible to everywhere while others see it as a danger, rather than a boon . I totally support the mobile trend in food distribution .

First of all, opponents of this tendency argue that the spread of food to far-away places is cost-ineffective . Such fees related to gasoline, transportation delivery, staff management and other types of insurance are way beyond the pocket of suppliers. However, economically, it bestows upon both producers and consumers more noticeable benefits. Due to scarcity of food in some areas, as a result of frozen or extremely scorching weather, crop failures are predictable, leading to a skyrocketing price . Hence, with the in-time delivery from other zones which are available in this type of needed food, the prices can be curbed and their taste is fully satisfied while businessmen who truly prioritize the demand of customers over others gain a huge amount of profit. Besides, as living standards of human escalates non-stop, their need for varied food, from eastern to western, is more urgent than ever, especially in times of globalization. As there goes a saying “ variety is the spice of life ”, food transported from thousands of miles away from its farm is inevitable.

The second disadvantage of this trend is believed to trigger the inability to control the quality of food and growing dependence of each nation. The past has shown that Roman, as a consequence of relying on food chain supply of other nations, ever saw its power going into steep decline whereas the task of far-distance distribution can hardly ensure the thorough examination between suppliers and buyers, and trigger unwanted virus damaging the food. Nevertheless, gone are the days that food was easily ruined by external factors when refrigerators and other types of modern innovations are employed to keep food fresh and pasteurize it effectively. Another point is that Roman might have seen a quick economic recovery if successfully developing other industries to compensate for their lack of food supply . Geographically, each nation is born to be in a location which could be either suitable or hostile to food production, but by focusing on their inherent strengths and exchanging their products, food supply and other types of products are readily accessible to both, and at the same time, this is conducive to heightening the specialization in their production and maximizing their output in general. Moreover, with this trend growing ever-prevalent , procedures of supervising food set up by food experts are internationalized. Entering the market of Wal-mart in America, customers are able to choose the lowest price dishes, while still feeling satisfied with their quality by dint of clear markings of out-of-date and usage attached to each item. Equally important, this tendency is a contributor to pressuring local food companies to continuously enhance their quality; otherwise, customers will turn to other markets for better ones with less cost.

All things considered , I strongly hold onto the view that more gains than pains are realized in this scenario for its cost-effective, motivational, win-win benefits for customers, producers and governments.

Domination (noun)  control or power over other people or things

Cutting-edge (adj)  extremely modern and advanced

Boon (noun) something useful that brings great benefits or makes your life easier

Bestow something on someone (verb)   to give valuable property or an important right or honour to someone

Scorching (adj)  extremely hot

Skyrocket (verb)  rising quickly to a very high level

Variety is the spice of life (Cliché) You should try many different kinds of experiences, because trying different things keeps life interesting.

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The system followed by grocery traders and merchants for procurement of fresh supplies is quite sophisticated in this day and age. Since the production of farm products is restricted to rural areas, transportation is the only avenue for obtaining fruits and vegetables for the urban market. Although there are various underlying reasons for this trend and there is a debate on whether such a system is feasible or not, this has been the conventional method followed by businesses across the globe. In the following paragraphs, I will explore and provide answers to the questions posed by the topic.

To begin with, we are all aware of the fact that agricultural activities are most prevalent in the countryside. Since rural areas are less polluted and the land is rich in nutrients, farming activities are abundant in such places. Thus, the primary supply of products like fruits and vegetables comes from rural areas. Moreover, due to the abundance of free land, the establishment of huge farms and plantations is easier in the country.

On the other hand, the demand for such farm products is greater in urban areas due to cities and towns being more densely populated. Consequently, traders have to bear enormous expenses on transportation so that these products are made available to the urban population in supermarkets and grocery stores. Although such expenses can be managed by large scale organizations with economies of scale, the same is not possible for small-time businesses. Furthermore, there are other costs like proper storage of these products as they are perishable in nature. All these limitations make this current approach costly and impractical for new and small-scale vendors.

In conclusion, I would like to say that even though the framework of procuring farm products through long-distance transportation is widely practised, it is not suitable for various reasons. As the integrity and the quality of such products become questionable when travelling huge distances from rural to urban areas, an improved process that is both efficient and cost-effective has to be implemented.

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From “food miles” to “moneyball”: how we should be thinking about food and climate.

Bret C. Birdsong , University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law

Document Type

Publication date.

Since Michael Pollan popularized the push to eat local food in his bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma , the concept of “food miles” has been something of a rallying cry and an organizing principle in the marketing of the local food movement. Among locavores and their sympathizers, the term seems to encapsulate all that is wrong with the food system. Fresh grapes from Chile make their way to supermarkets from Maine to Minnesota, and even California. Major food conglomerates process commodity ingredients like corn, soy, and wheat into packaged food that travels across the country and across oceans before landing on a dinner plate. In a time when climate change is emerging as a widely accepted threat—perhaps the biggest threat—to the world as we know it, the concept of “food miles” alluringly invites us to take satisfying personal action where national and international governance have failed to forge an effective response to the warming planet. The term suggests that by acting locally, by eating locally, we can each do our own small, individual part to confront the enormity of this global problem—that shopping at the farmer’s market is a virtuous act of global citizenship.

This Essay seeks to demonstrate the limits of that notion and to suggest a different way of thinking about food and climate. Whether or not it is true that food travels an average of 1,500 miles before it reaches the American table, the concept of “food miles” is not one which we should construct policy around to address the food system’s contribution to global warming. This Essay seeks to bring to the discussion among American legal scholars and local food activists what is becoming increasingly clear to ecologists and other scientists who study the impact of the food system on climate: The distance between American fork and farm, while it may be a part of the climate change puzzle, is not a keystone. Fossil-fueled transportation accounts for a relatively small portion of the food system’s contribution to climate change. Far more important than transportation are the ways that farming is done, particularly the efficient uses of nitrogen fertilizer, the management of manure and livestock, and the clearing of forests for cultivation to provide food and energy (biofuel) to a growing world population.

This Essay will proceed in two main parts. In order to choose the most effective policies it is essential to understand what is known about the impact of the food sector on climate change. Part I places “food miles” in context by describing the ways in which agriculture (the cultivation of food) contributes to global warming. It does so not just by looking at today’s emissions from agriculture, but also by considering the climate impact of food production in future decades. Part II suggests a pragmatic policy approach to addressing climate change through the food and agriculture sector. It outlines a series of proposals, primarily to be undertaken on the international scale, that focuses on “low hanging fruit” by focusing on the sector’s most significant greenhouse gas emissions. It identifies five “Moneyball” strategies for smartly addressing the climate impacts of food production in the coming decades.

Publication Citation

65 Maine L. Rev. 409 (2013).

Recommended Citation

Birdsong, Bret C., "From “Food Miles” to “Moneyball”: How We Should Be Thinking About Food and Climate" (2013). Scholarly Works . 776. https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub/776

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Italian Traditional Family Essay Sample

Italy is one of the most historical countries in Europe with its landscape serving as a portrait of years gone by. The rich history is woven into all aspects of the country including family, business and culture. With landmarks and ruins as old as two thousand years, Italy has managed to keep its history intact while adopting modern values. Today, it is not only an attraction for the tourists but also a hub of arts, fashion and traditions.

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Reflecting on Sudan’s Civil War One Year Later

Amel Marhoum works for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Before the war transformed Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, into a battlefield she lived there with her family. Starting on April 15, 2023, during the last days of Ramadan, heavy gunfire and shelling trapped countless families, including her own, in their homes with dwindling supplies of food and water. A year later, every segment of Sudan’s population, from pastoralists in rural areas to the country’s once thriving urban middle-class have been impacted. This is Amel’s reflection on how the war has changed her, her country, and her work.

Before the fighting truly began, there were indications in Sudan that a minor conflict was brewing, but not a full-fledged war.   I still feel like it is a dream—or more-so a nightmare. I keep thinking tomorrow I’ll wake up and things will be fine. But things are not fine. 

April 14, 2023  felt like a normal Ramadan night. We had our  suhoor   (early morning meal before sunrise)   and hours later the war erupted. That Saturday morning, April 15,  I was sleeping, which tells you just how peaceful and calm the day started out.

I was not prepared for what happened next. The sudden sounds of heavy artillery, airstrikes, and shelling were unimaginable. I had never heard sounds like this in my life.

As a Liaison Officer at UNHCR, I’m the kind of person who’s quick to react and take action. I could make only a few phone calls to relatives, friends, and colleagues before there was no connection. This was one of the big challenges at the time—not knowing what was happening to people. Equally challenging was helping colleagues find cash, fuel, and buses so they could leave Khartoum. I even remember thinking how much of a miracle it was when the UN convoy arrived at the city of Port Sudan on April 24. People were scrambling to leave any way they could.

A week later, as the most senior national staff member, I was put in charge of UNHCR’s office in Sudan. The phone didn’t stop ringing. We were a team of six, and our role was to help our staff and refugees move out of hotspots to safer zones—a difficult task because, in our area, the shelling was very heavy. My colleagues were terrified. Some needed money to movetheir children to safety, and some were stuck in areas where we couldn’t reach them. Every day, we would wake up and find that our neighbors’ houses were gone, and people were dead. 

I thought the fighting would last for a week or two, a month maximum, if it even dragged on in the first place. But then there was no food or water, and we were seeing more soldiers in the streets. We reached a point during the fourth week when we really had to leave—and fast.

Read More: Sudan’s Dangerous Descent Into Warlordism

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On the road to Madani, 85 miles southeast of Khartoum, I saw only destruction and death. I can never forget this—it’s like a horror film, but it’s one you can’t switch off. At one point, where we were held at gunpoint, saying our last prayers. But then the soldiers let us go.

On our journey, we reached the house of a family. We didn’t know them, and they didn’t know us. They insisted we stay with them—they brought us food and made the beds for us. In their house was the first time I felt at peace enough to sleep properly.

I set up the UNHCR office in Madani in early May, and then moved to Port Sudan a month later to establish [another]. Later I moved to Ethiopia to support UNHCR teams on the border with Sudan to receive arriving refugees. 

The lives of Sudanese refugees in the countries they’ve fled to are very tough now. Some of us have left without documents. We are without a home, and some have been left with nothing. But as long as there are people who, despite their own worries, are willing to accept us, there is hope. I saw this generosity with the Ethiopian people – their willingness to accommodate Sudanese refugees, despite their own challenges. They opened their borders and accepted us. But it also requires the support of the whole international community and us humanitarian workers. 

I feel I have aged so much this past year. This experience has changed all of us in Sudan. But I still have hope and confidence—in myself, in my family, in my team, in my work, and above all, in my country. 

Sudan is a country that has tremendous resources. I believe this generation and future generations can perform miracles with the right support. 

We can rise again and become better than when we started. This is what keeps me going. — As told to Sara Bedri

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Why Do Elections in India Take So Long?

The election is a giant undertaking that requires millions of poll workers, voting machines and security forces to cover deserts, mountains, forests and megacities.

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By John Yoon and Hari Kumar

When Indians start heading to the polls on Friday, it will be just the beginning of a colossal democratic process. Not until June 4, after six weeks of voting, will India know whether its powerful prime minister, Narendra Modi, will remain in office for a third term.

Why does it all take so long? The short answer: India is the world’s most populous nation , with 969 million eligible voters. That’s more than one-tenth of the world’s population, or about four times the number of eligible voters in the next largest democracy, the United States.

The longer answer involves India’s geography, election rules, security apparatus, holidays and electronic voting machines — a complicated choreography for a big, complicated nation.

India is mind-bogglingly large.

India’s first national parliamentary elections, from 1951 to 1952, lasted over 120 days. In 1977, they took five days. But, generally, they have taken weeks or months, even without primary elections, because of their sheer scale.

The country has a land area of more than a million square miles, with people in megacities , scattered throughout the Himalayas , in the Thar Desert , inside forests and along the Ganges .

India’s laws also state that voters can’t be required to travel more than 2 kilometers, or 1.2 miles, from their home to get to a polling station. To make that possible, 12 million election workers will traverse the country to set up polling stations this year, sometimes by foot, bicycle, helicopter or boat — or even by horse, camel or elephant.

Some of those trips can take days. In 2019, the country’s highest polling station was more than 15,000 feet above sea level in the Spiti Valley of the Himalayas. In 2009, a team of five trekked deep into the Gir Forest in Gujarat, in India’s west, to reach the lone inhabitant of a remote Hindu temple.

“It is an honor, it really is,” the priest, Bharatdas Darshandas, told reporters after the election that year. “It proves how India values its democracy.”

Security forces preserve order.

In the early years of India’s democracy, clashes between supporters of rival parties turned deadly. Candidates were kidnapped. Local police officers, failing to maintain order, were accused of taking sides under pressure from the ruling politicians. So, starting in the 1990s, national paramilitary forces began to be deployed on a large scale in elections.

India is deploying over 300,000 members of its federal security forces to help transport voting machines and maintain peace at voting booths this year. Because they can’t cover the entire nation at once, elections are split into multiple stages. In each stage, the soldiers shift from one region to another.

These safety precautions prolong elections that would otherwise take a few days, said Vikram Singh, the former police chief of India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, who had supervised security forces in past elections. But he said voters were safer because of them.

Violence is infrequent at polling stations today. The presence of soldiers there also instills confidence in the election results.

While having multiple stages has prevented violent outbreaks, it has also prompted criticism that it makes the election process take too long. S. Y. Quraishi , a former chief election commissioner, said in an interview that the gaps between the phases had given more time for rumors and disinformation to spread.

Voting is scheduled around holidays and festivals.

When the Election Commission of India schedules votes, it tries to avoid India’s various public holidays and religious festivals. Harvest season, the academic calendar, exam schedules and the weather are also considered.

The careful planning has helped achieve high voter turnout. In 2019, 67 percent of the electorate voted in the national election, the highest participation rate in the country’s history.

One holiday during this election is Mahavir Jayanti, on April 21, one of the most important festivals in Jainism, a religion of some six million people in India. Another is Buddha’s birthday, May 23, when monks will carry sacred relics of Buddha on chariots, and people will decorate their homes with flowers and donate to those in need.

With nearly a billion voters, India needs millions of machines.

Electronic voting machines became a standard in all of India’s national elections in 2004. They have made voting simpler for millions of people, particularly in India’s teeming cities, where the busiest polling stations can serve up to 12,000 people on the voting day.

The machines were built to be more portable and lighter than traditional ballot boxes. But they must be transported to wherever the polling stations are set up. Each machine consists of a “control unit” that tallies and stores votes; “balloting units” with buttons that voters press; and a printer that creates a paper trail.

They also come with special carrying cases that make them easy to pack. Workers follow elaborate safeguards to transport them around the country.

Thanks to these machines, once the voting is over, the counting goes fast.

John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news. More about John Yoon

Hari Kumar covers India, based out of New Delhi. He has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about Hari Kumar

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40 facts about elektrostal.

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 02 Mar 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

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PEKIN, Elektrostal - Lenina Ave. 40/8 - Restaurant Reviews, Photos & Phone Number - Tripadvisor