Welsh food distribution methods dubbed 'unsustainable'
According to Wales Online, food produced in Wales must travel potentially hundreds of miles to a distribution centre before it reaches the shops, even if where it is made and where it is sold are a couple of miles apart.
In a report on the sustainability of Wales' food distribution systems, the newspaper used the example of organic yoghurts produced at Rachel's Dairy in Aberystwyth.
The yoghurts are loaded onto a lorry and then driven to a distribution centre 70 miles away in Oswestry, which is across the Wales/England border in the county of Shropshire. Some of these yoghurts will be picked up by supermarkets and driven all the way back again to be sold in shops in Aberystwyth. This is a round trip totalling around 130 miles.
Whilst supermarkets and those in production food jobs claim that transporting goods by road is efficient, food policy professor - expert in what is now being termed 'food miles - Tim Lang disagrees. He says:
In a report on the sustainability of Wales' food distribution systems, the newspaper used the example of organic yoghurts produced at Rachel's Dairy in Aberystwyth.
The yoghurts are loaded onto a lorry and then driven to a distribution centre 70 miles away in Oswestry, which is across the Wales/England border in the county of Shropshire. Some of these yoghurts will be picked up by supermarkets and driven all the way back again to be sold in shops in Aberystwyth. This is a round trip totalling around 130 miles.
Whilst supermarkets and those in production food jobs claim that transporting goods by road is efficient, food policy professor - expert in what is now being termed 'food miles - Tim Lang disagrees. He says:
"The food industry accounts for a quarter of all wagons on British roads, and half are empty."
"Is it sensible? Is it sustainable? No and no.
"It is bad for the environment, crazy in terms of economics, bad for climate change and terrible for culture and everyday life."
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