Food Miles

We have been finding out about food miles. This means how far the food has travelled to get to our plate. We were very surprised that some food had travelled so far.

This is us researching where the food came from.

We made cartoons showing how the food travelled. Some food had to go a long way on a plane and a lorry and a boat. They use lots of petrol so it is not very green. We found out about food in Orkney - it hasn't travelled so far to get to us. We even got some Orkney food to taste - yum yum.

We made a display to teach other people about food miles. P3 and some of the other staff came to see it.

Here is our display:

We used this plate of food and worked out how many miles the food had travelled.

If the lamb was from New Zealand, the potatoes from Israel, the carrots from South Africa, the milk from Bridge of Allan and the strawberries from Spain the food would have travelled more than 20 000 miles to reach our plate! We were very surprised at this.

If the lamb was from North Ronaldsay, the potatoes from a farm in Tankerness, the carrots from Baillies grown in Deerness, the milk from Crantit Dairy in Kirkwall and the strawberries from Birsay the food would only have travelled about 66 miles to reach our plate.

Here are some cartoon strips showing the different journey the strawberries might have made if they came from Spain ...

... or from Birsay.

Here are cartoon strips showing the different journey the lamb might have made if it came from New Zealand ...

... or from North Ronaldsay.

You can click on the pictures to see them a bit bigger if you want to.


We hope you have learned something from this - we did!

"You should think about where your food comes from."

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