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The term “food miles” has quietly entered the food language. Two colleagues and I came up with it 14 years ago for a Channel 4 documentary because we wanted to capture the hidden distance that food travels before it miraculously pops up on the supermarket shelf. It is now featured on The Archers, dropped into conversations, and last month received official status by being the subject of a report from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

But consumers also contribute to the food-miles problem. Car use for buying food in towns has risen by 27% since 1992. The average distances to get to the shops has risen from 3.3 miles to 4.2 miles over the past 10 years; not far, but too far to carry heavy bags home unless as weightlifting practice (maybe not a bad idea, given obesity rates). We now travel an average 898 miles a year to get to and from the shops.

The Guardian