NAME: REG No: COURSE: UNIT CODE: UNIT NAME: FOOD SCIENE AND TECHNOLOGY AFS 2402 POST

HARVEST TECHNOLOGY OF PERISHABLES

ASSIGNMENT: CONCEPT OF FOOD MILES AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE EXPORT OF KENYAS PERISHABLE PRODUCE

CONCEPT OF FOOD MILES AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE EXPORT OF KENYAS PERISHABLE PRODUCE Introduction: Food miles is defined as the distance food travels from where it is grown to where it is purchased or consumed by end users (Pirog et al., 2001). The term was first introduced by Andrea Paxton in the early 1990s to explain the concept of deleterious pollution and energy consumption effects associated with the long distance transportation of produce. It has received increasing attention over the recent past because of linkages to sustainability issues. Due to various environmental, social, and economic impacts, it is often used as an indicator of food consumption sustainability. Food miles have been a concern among many researchers and environmental activists because it is often linked directly to the environmental impact of diesel fuel consumption. In particular, it is often linked to greenhouse gas emissions which in turn give rise to a concern with issues such as global warming, smog and acid rain production, and air pollution. Apart from the consumption of diesel fuel, other effects of increasing food miles that are being felt in both exporting and importing countries are social and economic in nature, and, as a result, food miles have also been linked to sustainability. In Kenya the first serious debate started in December 2006 and early 2007.

The concept of food miles: Food supply systems have been undergoing a transformation in recent few years, in turn affecting food production. In Kenya, the trend is towards consumers making fewer shopping trips and shopping in large supermarkets resulting in market share being increasingly concentrated into fewer hands. To sustain their profitability, large supermarket chains maintain as few suppliers as possible, often where land and labor costs are low. For example, most major suppliers to UK supermarkets are now in foreign countries, such as Kenya and Egypt, as these countries have more favorable climates and/or cheaper labor to maintain year round supply at low costs. Large retailers also encourage producers to produce a more limited range of crop varieties in order to enjoy the benefits of economies of scale. These food production and supply trends may lead to adverse environmental impacts, not just from diesel fuel used in long distance
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food transportation, but also from decreasing crop diversity. The major problems associated with the lack of crop biodiversity is pest and disease susceptibility resulting in increased use of pesticides and postharvest chemical treatment, and ecosystem imbalance because of the various ecological services that crop diversity performs, such as nutrient recycling and regulation of microclimate. In addition, emerging food production and supply systems may result in adverse consequences in both importing and exporting countries in relation to social injustice and unethical farming practices.

Impacts on export: In many developing countries smallholder export horticulture is proving to be a powerful new engine for growth in rural economies. Kenya has been one of the quickest to develop as a supplier of air-freighted fresh vegetables from smallholder fields to consumers in Europe. More than a million livelihoods have been created in farm production and a further three million in associated employment. If the countries that import the fresh produce from Kenya fail to import from us and opt to produce their own, then the Kenyans (over 4 million) who earned a living from practicing farming for export will be left with no source of income thus increasing the poverty levels in the country. In 2004, Kenyas export of vegetables, roots, tubers, and other edible vegetables totaled $161 million and made it the 27th largest exporting country in this category. (ITS, 2009) In another export category, live trees, plants, bulbs, roots, and cut flowers, Kenya exported $470 million worth of merchandise and was the 7th largest exporter in the world in 2006. If the food mile issue is taken into consideration, most of these commodities that Kenya was exporting will deteriorate in quality leading to post harvest losses hence the country will miss out in the huge amounts of foreign exchange that it earned annually for such exports. Critiques also say the food miles has no effects on the export of Kenyans fresh produces as Tescos and Marks & Spencers early embrace of food miles has confirmed that air freighted labels have no discernable impact on sales. Meanwhile, consumers seem to continue to appreciate the convenience and choices offered by large supermarkets as opposed to the more limited options typical of smaller retail outlets. Food miles idea might also lead to an increase cost of production and therefore increased prices for Kenyan produce in the European markets due to the extra cost incurred by producers for carbon labeling.
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Conclusion: The course of the debate over food miles is nonetheless instructive for policy makers. It illustrates the importance of both questioning claims made by organizations with a vested interest in a particular form of public policy and digging deeper for information that either supports or refutes the claims made. Above all, it highlights the need to remain focused on the issues that are important - in this case, the greenhouse gas emissions of highly subsidized first-world agriculture, the trade imbalances that prevent both developed and developing countries from realizing the mutual benefits of freer trade, biofuel subsidies, and third-world povertyand avoid being distracted by small issues. With the population of the planet rapidly heading for an estimated 9 billion people over the next few decades, numerous food- policy issues other than food miles should preoccupy policy makers.

References: 1. Alastair, I., 2005. Learning in sustainable agriculture: Food miles and missing objects. Enviromental Values, 14(2), pp.163-83.
2. ITS, 2009. International Trade Statistics. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK

"http://www.intracen.org/tradsat" http://www.intracen.org/tradsat [Accessed 16 July 2013]. 3. Pirog, R., Van Pelt, T., Enshayan, K. & Cook, E., 2001. Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa perspective on how far food travels. fuel usage, and greenhouse gas emissions. Leopole Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

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