August's editorial referred briefly to the recent report commissioned by Defra in an attempt to assess whether the concept of Food Miles would be a reliable indicator of progress towards the objectives of the government's Sustainable Farming and FoodStrategy and the proposed Food Industry Sustainability Strategy. The title of the report is The Validity of Food Miles as an indicator of Sustainable Development, July 2005 produced by AEA, Harwell. It is not a document recommended for the feint-heartedbut it constitutes an interesting development with which we should be familiar and is well worth getting off the Defra web site. Perhaps the most interesting thing from our point of view is the fact that government strategies exist in an area that affects us so greatly. It is an indicator that transportation of food is considered an issue and that the subject will continue to be debated by the various interest groups, of which we are clearly one. The report is huge, 100+ pages in all, and concludes that the subject is complex. The sheer thoroughness of the report ensures that.
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