Mountain of light

There was this interesting article in the paper few weeks’ back and I still haven’t been able to get it out of my head. Random thoughts keep bringing me back to the article. The article was about ‘food miles’. About how environmentalists in the UK are calculating the miles a food item has to travel before reaching the shelves of the supermarket. The assumption being that more the food miles, the environment is worse off. Food is talked about being soaked in diesel or aviation fuel, if that is your poison.

There are 2 things about the article that disturbed me- one was the basis of the article and second concerned the people who were originating the idea. The basis of the article too me is absolutely ridiculous and questions the very basis of globalisation. Using this logic, England would have never discovered pepper and India would have never got colonized. Not just that, this argument can be dangerously used for clothes, computers and even people. Why have commodities produced all the way across in China and then have it shipped here when it can be produced in your backyard. It is very easy for anti trade campaigners to use this argument and say that trade is actually damaging the environment. When people in developed countries that complain against food miles they don’t realize that if they get their beans from Kenya they are actually providing a livelihood to that farmer, which is much better than giving him aid. Trade is the biggest enabler of economic possibilities. I do hope that this argument dies down quickly.

The other thing is that I think the environmentalists are getting it all wrong. They should be focusing on how to minimize automobiles that are the biggest source of pollution in this world. Money should be put into public transport and cars should be put on the same track as cigarettes. Every year one area is banned for smokers, more taxes and bigger health messages on the packets. I think cars should only be allowed in Formula 1 and Top Gear. The next generation should look at cars and like how our generation looks at typewriters. Nice to look and admire but of no productive use.

The article also talked about how the maximum food miles are generated by the trip from home to the supermarket in a four wheel drive !