Editorial Introduction to Volume III 11farm to plate transport costs, or ‘food miles’, are substantial. In addition, there is
growing interest in local and regionalized food supply systems and the potential
social and environmental benefits they could bring. This study by Jules Pretty, Tim
Lang and colleagues analyses the full costs of foods in the average weekly UK food
basket by calculating the costs arising at different stages from farms to consumers’
plates. Of the 12 commodities assessed, livestock produce contributes the most
costs per kg. Agricultural and food produce accounts for 28 per cent of goods
transported on UK roads, currently imposing estimated external costs of £2.35bn
yr–1. The contribution made by sea and air transport is currently trivial owing to
low volumes. However, road transport to carry food from the shop to home is
estimated to impose a further £1.28bn yr–1 to total external costs. The paper
assesses a variety of scenarios for the adoption of organic farming, localized food
systems and sustainable transport to indicate the substantial potential to reduce
environmental costs in the UK food system.
Facing a major agricultural crisis, European countries are searching for alterna-
tives to the intensive-production agricultural development model promoted since
the early 1950s. Agenda 2000 introduced significant changes in the Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP) by recognizing the multifunctionality of agriculture and
by giving more importance to the second pillar, a term used for the measures sup-
porting wider rural development. Meanwhile, agri-environmental schemes are tak-
ing on much greater importance in the overall policy mix for agriculture in
European Union (EU) countries. With respect to the idea of multifunctional agri-
culture, one way to raise farmers’ environmental stewardship is to reward environ-
mental practices through food quality labelling schemes. The objective of this
study by Genevieve Nguyen and colleagues was to identify existing relationships
between the production of quality food and the production of environmental
goods at the farm level. In this paper, we report the results of analyses conducted
to examine the effects of major ‘quality’ and ‘ecolabelling’ schemes in the Midi-
Pyrenees regions of the south of France. Factor analysis and analysis of variance
were used with a data set of 107 farms – some participating in the labelling schemes
and some not participating – for which environmental scores had been assigned.
The statistical analyses were complemented by a qualitative analysis based on in-
depth interviews of 85 farmers and review of the labelling standard guidelines.
This study shows that organic farms and farms enrolled in various quality and eco-
labelling programmes in France do provide some environmental benefits. How-
ever, they do not necessarily perform better than other farms on all environmental
measures.
At the turn of the century, Cuba was of the few developing countries in the
world with an explicit national policy for sustainable agriculture. To the end of the
1980s, Cuba’s agricultural sector was heavily subsidized by the soviet bloc. It
imported more than half of all calories consumed, and 80–95 per cent of wheat,
beans, fertilizer, pesticides and animal feed. It received three times the world price
for its sugar. But in 1990, trade with the soviet bloc collapsed, leading to severe
shortages of all inputs. The government’s response was to declare an ‘Alternative