Air freighted organic food has been the cause of much discussion in recent weeks with environmental groups such as Greenpeace calling for produce flown into the UK to be stripped of its organic status. This comes at a time of heightened awareness into the high levels of carbon emissions from aircraft and the Soil Association is currently conducting a consultation into this issue. UK Energy Saving has submitted their views to the consultation, and is of the opinion that, whilst the reduction of air freighting should be encouraged, whether or not produce has been flown into the UK should not be added to organic criteria.
One of the reasons that consumers are choosing organic food is due to environmental concerns about intensive farming methods. It therefore stands to reason that these same consumers may have concerns about whether the food on their table has travelled a large number of ‘food miles’ and how many of those have been in the air. For UK Energy Saving, however, this issue comes down to consumer choice, which is why they are supporting the suggestion of labelling all air freighted produce.
“Air freighting is clearly an area for concern,” comments Hayley Jones, Web Marketing Director for http://www.uk-
UK Energy Saving is a consumer website, http://www.uk-
