Think Global, Act Local

How many pound miles are involved in the meals you eat? Val finds out as she tots up the miles for her Sunday lunch

- Val Bourne

I’M not sure whether you remember a series of adverts, from a few years ago, that went along these lines: “This is no ordinary asparagus – this is flown in from Peru. These green beans have been hand-picked in Kenya…” and so on. Everything sold by this chain seemed to have been jetted in from some far-flung place and that was supposed to make us all go, “Wow! That’s special.”

Well, it made me cringe because the air miles involved do the planet no good at all. Worse still, many countries growing this fresh food for us are rather short of it themselves.