To think that people who care about food miles rarely consider product miles?

[ThursdayWeld]

Was just on a thread about Australian imports of meat, and people mentioned food miles and the environment.

But it seems to me that we never question product miles? When we buy that cheap lamp from China, or our mobile phone from China, or anything from China really. Or clothes from India or Turkey...

Nobody ever seems to mention product miles. Aren't we being hypocritical about the environment if we just keep ordering off Amazon (or wherever) without thinking about where things are coming from?

[wheresmymojo]

Well I can only speak for myself - I do think about it however it's very hard to do anything about.

Finding food sourced locally can be a bit of a challenge but it's do-able.

Finding anything else sourced locally is almost impossible. Even if it's been made in this country the chances are the component parts have been made all over the world or the raw material has (e.g. a garment might be made in the UK but it's unlikely that the fabric was. And even if it was it's highly unlikely the source was e.g. cotton isn't grown here).

[XenoBitch]

Pretty impossible to do much about it. Any semblance of modern life would be impossible if you only used/bought items that were made/sourced locally. You would be rolling back your living standards to Bronze Age.

[looptheloopinahulahoop]

I guess the difference is that most of those products come by ship which is a lot less environmentally damaging, whereas a lot of food comes by air.

[SnappyMcSnapface]

Food miles are an overrated concern imo. What you eat has much more impact on the environment than where your food is from. A pound of local beef is multiple times more harmful to the environment than imported avocados. Shopping local is therefore pretty pointless if your diet involves meat.