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The problem is that there is no workable scheme for calculating foodmiles, yet there is still a demand from customers to know how far it travels. There is going to have to be some leeway in what qualifies as local to make it workable. That might include removing pesticides from the calculations for the sake of getting a working scheme.
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The first question to be considered would be "is it possible to have a workable food-miles scheme among the general populace, which is also meaningful enough to be worth having ?"
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You could also specify that food that had been air-freighted could not be called local under any circumstances.
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This seems illogical to me.
If a company is in Wick and has produce flown to Kirkwall via air..... then that produce is surely no less "local" , than if the same company sent the same produce across the Pentland Channel on the ferry.
As far as I am aware, presently Waitrose is the only supermarket which has bothered to define what it thinks is "local" .... that being anything which was grown within 30 miles of the store where it is sold, regardless of any transportation involved to grow the food, the manner in which it is transported over those 30 miles, how native or alien the produce is to the area where it is grown, etcetera.
Would you consider their opinion on local produce to be acceptable ?