PowerPoint 3 Sarah’s salad

Sarah’s salad Garlic Origin: China (5000 food miles) Potential issues: garlic is sprayed with chemicals to keep it white - how consumers prefer it. Beef Origin: Argentina (11,000 food miles) Potential issues: to produce 1lb of factory-farmed beef uses about 1800 gallons of water and 7lb of grain. Iceberg lettuce Origin: Spain (1000 food miles) Potential issues: lettuce requires constant refrigeration during transport and storage, and uses lots of water in a water-poor country. Spring onion Origin: Egypt (2600 food miles) Potential issues: if only the small white part of the onion is used, the rest is wasted. Salad onions do not grow in the UK in winter so must be imported. Red chillies Origin: Kenya (5200 food miles) Potential issues: chillies can come individually packaged in plastic. They are a non-traditional crop in Kenya grown purely for export. Ginger Origin: China (5000 food miles) Potential issues: pesticides are used to kill insects that attack ginger as it grows. Photo © zstock/Shutterstock.com

What makes food sustainable? It is not easy to define sustainable food, but the following factors are generally accepted as making our food more sustainable: less packaging little waste lower meat consumption levels, or ensuring high-welfare meat using seasonal produce buying local; fewer food miles using Fairtrade products; ensuring fair deals for producers or poverty reduction guarantees ‘grow your own’ using only sustainable fish sources buying organic produce; grown without chemical fertiliser or pesticide ensuring food is healthy and contributes to a balanced diet.