Impacts

For exporters, the food miles movement can seem a transparent attempt by producers in some European countries (UK, France, and Germany) and the US to protect their local markets from foreign suppliers. Producers in importing countries certainly have an incentive to favor policies that support local consumption.

Assuming consumers are primarily concerned about distance, rather than favoring local products over imports, the exporters most adversely affected by the food miles movement would be those who are furthest from Europe and the US and who supply a large share of their food exports to those countries. Many developing countries with agricultural industries focused on the export market would fall in this category, including those in Africa, South America, and Asia and the Pacific.⁴

Purchasing local goods also changes the location of pollution associated with production. Some pollutants, such as methane gas (produced by cattle and sheep), respect no boundaries, making the location of emissions irrelevant from a global perspective. However, others, such as nitrogen from manure that leaches into the soil on livestock farms, directly affect the place of production. Since countries vary in the absorptive capacities of their local environments, minimizing food miles by moving the place of production will not necessarily lessen the overall environmental impact, and could in fact be more damaging, especially for the formerly importing country. Purchasing locally produced goods is effectively importing the associated pollution along with the beneficial effects. Whether these effects are trivial or significant depends on the nature of the industry. A problem arises because those bearing the costs of additional local pollution are not those who are purchasing the final goods. In the absence of sound environmental policies, purchasing locally produced goods may actually increase both local and global pollution.⁵

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