The Archbishop of Canterbury has called on the UK to become more self-sufficient in food production in a bid to tackle climate change.
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In an interview with The Times, Dr Rowan Williams said that British families should start to grow more produce themselves – in allotments and gardens – as well as purchasing locally grown foods.
Speaking ahead of a lecture, Williams is delivering on the Christian response to climate change at Southwark Cathedral today (13 October), Dr Williams insisted that the carbon footprint of produce from Kenya and other airfreighted food was too high. He called on consumers and retailers to “gradually” phase out their reliance on fresh fruit and vegetables produced in sub-Saharan Africa.
“I don’t want to create an instant crisis in those economies but that’s the direction, a steady move away from it. You want to ask what is it doing long term to a Kenyan economy that becomes dependent on what are effectively cash crops for export,” he said.
However, Dr Williams’ comments have attracted criticism from African development organisations.
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By GlobalDataJames MacGregor, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) researcher who has led the group’s work on “fair miles versus food miles”, told just-food that produce imported from sub-Saharan Africa does not necessarily have a ‘bigger’ carbon footprint than foods grown in the UK.
“If you stopped the trade in produce with Kenya, it wouldn’t have very much impact on the carbon we produce. Many of the foods we import we could grow at home – but with much greater energy use,” MacGregor said.
Additionally, MacGregor revealed that over 80% of produce that is shipped from Kenya is carried in the cargo holds of commercial flights carrying tourists, rather than being carried on a dedicated freight carrier.
“Even if you attribute all the carbon emissions in the airfreight to fruit and vegetables imported from sub-Saharan Africa, it still accounts for less than one tenth of 1% of our carbon emissions at consumer level,” he added.
“Around 1.5m livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa are – at least partially – dependent on trade in fruit and vegetables with the UK. It is a very positive story for Africa and the UK and it is a trade that the UK is leading the world in.”
