FOOD MILES Consumers around the world should enjoy the greatest freedom of choice possible when buying food from their local grocer.  Purchases made from the wide variety offered each day at market are, and should continue to be, based on quality, price and personal taste. “Food Miles”—defined as the distance food has traveled from its point of origin to the consumer—ignores the reality that commercial food crops are often more efficiently and economically produced and transported from other regions of the world than those that may be produced at a location somewhat nearer the buyer’s kitchen table.  This can be true for any number of practical reasons, including climate, seasonality, and mode of transportation. Government has an important role to play, along with producers and retailers, in assuring the safety and quality of all food sold to the public.  No such regulatory role exists in terms of restricting consumer choice on the basis of the newly coined and simplistic concept of “Food Miles.”  The additional labeling at retail, record-keeping requirements throughout the entire distribution chain, and such other red tape that would be necessary to make “Food Miles” a meaningful commercial standard would only add to the cost of food delivered to market—without  any corresponding help to the environment within which we all live. “Food Miles” is also subject to serious public policy misuse—by producers who are geographically closer to a given marketplace—as a reason in support of rules unfairly limiting economic competition. Country of origin labeling at retail gives consumers additional information for deciding what foods they might purchase.  This we support.  However, our apple, pear, and cherry growers strongly reject the notion that the worldwide marketing of the good product of their orchards—fresh, healthy fruit from the river basins and mountain valleys of the Pacific Northwest —is somehow at odds with maintaining a healthy planet.   ▬ 12/21/07 Northwest Horticultural Council 105 South 18th Street, Suite 105 Yakima, Washington 98901, USA Voice: (509) 453-3193, Fax: (509) 457-7615 E-mail general@nwhort.org