The Big Question: Should we buy produce that has been flown in from abroad?

Why are we asking this now?

The Soil Association, the biggest organic body in Britain, may slap a ban on air-freighting. It is asking suppliers, the public and other interested parties for their views on flying in food to the UK. There are five options: 1. No change; 2. Labelling air miles; 3. Offsetting carbon from flights; 4. A selective ban; 5. A total ban.

Is this important?

Organic food is supposed to be kind to the environment so air-freighting is deeply unpopular with many shoppers. A ban would ease pressure on climate change and restore public trust in the integrity of organic food. But it could cause a split in the organic movement if importers leave the Soil Association, which certifies 75 per cent of organic food. It could also harm the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of impoverished workers in developing countries. The consultation can be regarded as a test case for air-freighting: Is it ever justifiable to fly food thousands of miles at a time of climate change?

What are food miles?

Food miles are generated whenever polluting transport is used to produce, sell or buy food. The family nipping to the supermarket in a hatchback clock up food miles just as surely as the juggernaut trundling along the motorway or the jet flying mange tout from Kenya. But the lorries and the planes are doing more damage to the environment.

How big is the problem?

Large, and growing. According to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, CO2 emissions from food miles rose by 15 per cent in the decade to 2002 and by a further 4 per cent to 2004 to a record 18 million tons. One in four lorries on the road now carries food. Food miles account for 1.8 per cent of the UK's CO2 emissions, which are among the highest in the world per capita and per country. Financially, the Government estimates food transport accumulates every year £9bn of social, environmental and economic costs from congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, accidents, air pollution, noise and infrastructure. Air-freighting is increasing rapidly and is extraordinary in scale. Baby corn is flown 5,900 miles from Thailand to reach British shelves. It is estimated that air-freighting just one small 225g punnet of New Zealand strawberries to the UK is equivalent to the Co2 emissions from 11 schools runs in the car.

Why are food miles increasing?

The amount of food grown in this country we eat has been falling steadily since 1990, when it was more than 70 per cent. Now 60 per cent of our food comes from the UK: almost half (40 per cent) is imported. We are importing more because we have become wealthier, more gastronomically adventurous and have acquired a taste for exotic fruit. We also expect fresh produce to be available all year round regardless of the seasons. Those December strawberries have to come from somewhere, and, although the growing season is being extended, it is not Britain. So air-freighting leapt by 136 per cent in the decade to 2002. And although only one per cent of food is flown in, that one per cent accounts for 10 per cent of Britain's food-related CO2 emissions.

What is the Government doing?

Ministers have a target for cutting the social and environmental costs of food transportation by 20 per cent by 2012. They are targeting more road-freight efficiency from the supermarkets, which are responsible for so many of those lorries in the slow lane.

Why do supermarkets matter?

We buy most of our food from supermarkets and they have increased the amount of food on flights, and been trucking more food from farms to supply depots to stores. The supply network extends further in a system of national supermarkets than in local food chains - HGVs drive twice as much food around the country now as they did in 1974.

What is business doing?

The use of larger vehicles and bigger loads has in recent years reduced the number of miles travelled - though not pollution because bigger trucks use more fuel. Supermarket groups such as Sainsbury's and Asda have reduced the distance their trucks travel, something which is more important now because of the high cost of diesel. Much also centres on labelling. Marks & Spencer, for instance, is putting plane logos on all air-freighted food. The social enterprise company Belu has invented a Penguin Mark that guarantees a product is "carbon neutral", achieved by buying carbon offsets if necessary. Restaurants are making a virtue of local on menus. One Welsh restaurant, the five-star Fairyhill Hotel on the Gower peninsula, serves only food with ingredients produced within a 10-mile radius.

How would a ban affect developing countries?

Aid experts say that banning air-freighted food would harm producers in many countries, especially in Africa. They argue that it would be grossly unfair to penalise poor farmers who emit a tiny amount of carbon rather than take action to cut the far larger amounts emitted by profligate nations in the West. Action Aid estimates that developing countries earn £3bn per year from goods sold in supermarkets alone - approximately half the UK aid budget. More than 1 million people in Africa rely on selling fruit and vegetables to UK shoppers. Bill Vorley, of the International Institute for Environment and Development, says: "Airfreight of fresh fruit and vegetables from sub-Saharan Africa accounts for less than 0.1 per cent of total UK carbon emissions. The UK must first look to the huge impacts of our food system at home, before pulling up the ladder on Africa."

So is the climate a bigger priority than the Third World?

This is the crux of the argument. Environmentalists believe air-freighting large amounts of fresh food thousands of miles away is hugely irresponsible to the environment while the climate is being disturbed. They argue that the West should not be encouraging the development of such unsustainable agriculture; people in Grimsby don't need to east fresh pineapple from Ghana. We could instead be buying, say, clothes or handicrafts made there and shipped to the UK. In a report for the National Consumer Council, Greening Supermarkets, the author, Sue Dibb, warns: "Food is the average household's number one contributor to climate change - responsible for nearly a third of our climate impact. Our food choices are fundamentally important, not just to our health, but to the well-being of our planet." Then again, the CO2 emissions per person are very unequal between the developed and the developing world. The average Briton emits 9.2 tonnes and an African one tonne.

Should we ban air-freighted food?

Yes...

* Air-freighted food causes immense damage to the environment through climate change and is totally unnecessary for the diet

* Air food miles rose by 136 per cent in the decade to 2002, while British farmers - who maintain the countryside - have struggled

* A ban would encourage people to eat with the seasons, taking advantage of nature's supply of local nutritious food

No...

* A ban would devastate the livelihood of more than one million poor people in the developing world who rely on exports to survive

* Air-freighting allows the supply of wonderful and exotic fruits fresh, maintaining more of their nutrients

* Far less energy is expended in growing crops in the developing world than it is in the UK