KEY POINTS:
Top New Zealand chef Peter Gordon has launched a full-scale attack on Britain's "food miles" debate, saying it is not the answer to global warming.
The London-based restaurant owner has strongly defended the environmental soundness of importing food to Britain from New Zealand and other countries, including developing
nations in Africa.
In an article for the Independent this month, he says consumers are confusing food miles, or the distance food travels from field to plate, with the total carbon dioxide produced to get food to market.
Gordon, who co-owns hip London restaurants Providores and the Tapa Room, told the Herald he still "absolutely" considers himself a New Zealander.
He said he was sick of hearing ill-informed debate about the issue, which is so close to the hearts of New Zealand exporters.
"Everyone was talking about [food miles] but no one really knew what it was," he said.
"I wanted to say something from the perspective of someone in the food industry who is from a country whose exports will be affected by it."
Britons rely heavily on imported food, so the trend for using "food miles" to measure a food's environmental impact puts their spending habits under the spotlight.
The debate could harm New Zealand's export industry because of the long distance our exports must travel to reach England.
"Food miles play into the whole regional, organic thing going on at the moment," said Gordon. "It's a nice concept if we're talking about supporting your local producer, but if we're talking about global warming it's totally irrelevant."
The Wanganui-born chef uses food from all over the world for his style of cooking, known as "fusion".
Although he describes himself as a "greenie", he told the Herald life in England wouldn't be worth living without imported food.
"I'd adapt. But I would be doing without coffee, tea, sugar, champagne, and I'd be living in Britain, where we would be starving to death," he said. "It would be tragic."
Gordon contacted New Zealand exporters and the New Zealand Tourism Board to get facts and figures for his article.
He used those figures, and the results of two Lincoln University reports on food miles, to argue that growing popular imported foods in Britain would create more carbon emissions than importing them from overseas.
For example, to keep the UK market supplied with onions, British farmers would need to grow acres of onions on huge tracts of land that do not exist. The onions would have to be kept in chillers for up to nine months, powered by electricity produced mostly from burning fossil fuels.
As far as apples go, the use of fossil fuels to produce, package and transport them in the United Kingdom would produce more carbon than growing and exporting them from New Zealand.
"Eighty-two per cent of vehicle kilometres associated with transporting food consumed in the UK are generated within the UK itself," Gordon said in the article.
Gordon is something of a television celebrity in England, where he has lived for the past 18 years.
He debated the food miles issue with the British Soil Association on UKTV food show Market Kitchen last week.
The soil association has been considering removing the label "organic" from items flown into the United Kingdom because of the planes' carbon emissions, a move Gordon describes as "infuriating".
"I was saying, 'if it's proven that a New Zealand farmer can get a product to the UK with less carbon emissions that a UK product, will you take the organic label off the UK product?'."
Gordon told the Herald that British producers have done little to disprove claims New Zealand exports are better for the environment.
"Britain is going on about food miles but they've done very little to match the Lincoln reports."
Aside from the impact on New Zealand, Gordon said misguided views about food miles could destroy communities in countries such as Kenya, where people rely on exports to survive.
"The food miles thing is so simplistic and misleading. The fact is a Kenyan farmer probably walks to work, he probably grows everything outside, and he might not need to irrigate because he has good soil.
"If we send Africa into a tailspin over this it will have a far worse impact on the world than food miles ever would."
Gordon said he was nervous about speaking out about food miles, but so far he had had no negative comments.
"I was really worried I'd get a lot of flack from UK farmers and apple growers," he said.
"But the response has been really positive. One woman said 'I stopped buying New Zealand beef and lamb about 18 months ago and now I'm wondering if I've made a mistake'."
He said food miles was an issue New Zealand needed to stay aware of.
"We should be able to mount a really good response," he said.
COMPARING APPLES WITH APPLES
What are food miles?
The distance food travels from the place it is grown to get to your plate.
Why is that important?
The further it travels, the more carbon dioxide is emitted by the trucks and ships that carry it. Carbon dioxide traps the sun's heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming.
So New Zealand exports cause global warming?
This message has been pushed in Britain, especially by local farmers wanting to protect their own produce. New Zealand scientists and supporters, such as chef Peter Gordon, say it's simply not true.
How can that be?
You need to consider the total amount of carbon dioxide involved in producing food (or anything else you buy). For instance, Britain would use more electricity keeping some fruits and vegetables in chilled storage than it would importing the same food fresh.