Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
milk and oily fish, is such that we are not far off that situation already. After animal feeds,
oils are the UK's largest import in terms of land-take from other countries.
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The situation is similar, though not quite so severe, for high protein foods. Take for ex-
ample the haggises made in Scotland by James MacSween. The main ingredient is lamb of-
fal, followed in descending order by beef fat, oatmeal, water, onion, salt, pepper and spices.
Apart from the seasoning, all these ingredients are produced in Scotland, and could realist-
ically all be produced on the same farm. But for the last 18 years James MacSween's com-
pany has also been making an equally tasty vegan haggis which contains, again in order of
magnitude, oatmeal, water, vegetable margarine, kidney beans, lentils, peanuts, almonds,
walnuts, carrots, turnips, onions, mushrooms, salt, pepper and spices. The oatmeal and the
vegetables again could all be produced in Scotland. But the margarine is made primarily
of palm oil, from Indonesia or Brazil, mixed with some UK rape oil; the beans and lentils
are grown in countries such as Canada, Turkey and China; and the nuts are sourced from
local boy, the vegan substitute is a true cosmopolitan.
The range of high energy vegetarian foods is limited in the north, and becomes more
limited the further north you go, whereas there is a huge variety which can be grown in
warmer countries. This is why about ten years ago there was a fashion amongst vegan food
growers to emigrate to Spain, where sunflowers, chick peas and tomatoes ripen fully, and
olives, oranges and almonds grow on trees (though other reasons for emigrating were cheap
land and a relaxed planning regime). The Spain drain seems to have slowed down, partly
due to efforts by the Vegan Organic Network to promote stockless horticulture in the UK
and to develop varieties of Mediterranean crops adapted to a north Atlantic climate. Vegans
are becoming increasingly aware of the local food issue, and to their credit some are trying
to address it. Some gardeners claim to have obtained decent yields of soya beans, olives
and similar crops in the UK, but these are still a long way from being commercially viable.
Even trees that grow semi-naturally in England, such as chestnuts and walnuts, have yet to
produce commercial yields that can compete with imports from China or Italy. This could
change if global warming raises the mean temperature in the UK by several degrees. But
for the time being a shift towards a more vegan diet in a country such as the UK is likely to
lead either to a more boring diet, or else to greater food miles.
More food miles means greater energy expenditure; but we should be wary of exagger-
ating this factor of the energy equation. In 2008, an influential study by Christopher We-
ber and H Scott Matthews concluded that transport accounted for 11 per cent of US food
greenhouse gas emissions, while most of the rest was due to production processes, partic-
British Cabinet Office who state that 15.3 per cent of UK food emissions are caused by
transport.
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But Weber and Matthews' figures are better supported, and they use them to
