Food Miles in Australia: A Preliminary study of Melbourne, Victoria by Asha Bee Abraham and Sophie Gaballa, estimates the distances travelled for food items found in a typical Melburnian's shopping basket and the resulting greenhouse emissions from this transportation.

Food Miles is a term  used to measure the transport distance traveled by food products between production and consumption.

The study aims to open discussion in Australia around the sustainability of our centralised food systems and food production.

The research revealed that food items like oranges, sausages, tea, baked beans etc with ingredients sourced from overseas have seen more of the world than most people. The report estimates that the total distance travelled by 29 of our most common food items is 70,803 km—that's nearly two times the distance around the Earth.

Calculating road transport alone, the shopping basket travelled 21,073 km, almost the whole way around Australia's coastline. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions estimate for all food transporting trucks carrying these 25 items on any given day is the equivalent of 2,830 cars driving for a whole year. And that's just for one shopping basket of 25 items.

How far our food travels is only part of the Food Miles story. Processing and packaging and refrigeration also contributes to the energy footprint.  

The research was sponsored by the Finkel Foundation with the aim to develop a food education program that will inform and empower primary and secondary students through their food choices.

Download Food Miles: A preliminary study of Melbourne Victoria
Download Food Miles in Australia: A comparison of emissions from road and rail transport Feb 2008