endorsement.

"Food miles" refers to the distance between where the food is grown and where it is eaten. Supermarkets today sell fresh fruit from South America and frozen meat from New Zealand - and everything in-between! Many food products contain ingredients or components that have traveled across the world and thus accrued many food miles.

Transporting food burns fuel and produces greenhouse gases, which in turn causes climate change. The CO2 produced during this process, is referred to as the 'carbon footprint' – how big a mark it makes on the environment. However, it is not as straightforward as just looking at the miles: if the alternative to shipping naturally-ripened fresh produce over thousands of kilometers is to produce it closer to home but in very energy-intensive greenhouses, is this better? It may be that there are carbon-neutral greenhouses powered by renewable energy sources in the near future which go some way towards answering this.

In "Real insights" the public discussions at COP15 in Copenhagen on the impacts of food production and distribution on climate change are discussed.

On top of the environmental concerns, there is also the ethical question of taking away the livelihoods of farmers from poorer regions of the world who grow crops for export. This discussion falls into the concerns voiced by some groups about food sovereignty.

As with other consumer products in the world, food products and their manufacturers are now coming under closer scrutiny for their own carbon footprint. In the future, food products may carry "climate-labels" but this is still generally very much under discussion.

Of course, the alternative to foods carrying a high food mileage or intensive production practices, is to buy locally produced products that are in season. Local markets usually sell food that has been locally grown. (What is "local" is often down to sensible interpretations by individuals - from the same village or county or further afield?)

Organic products are also increasing in popularity and generally use less inputs (energy, fertilizer, etc) in their production compared to conventional farming methods but may have traveled across the world. On-line shopping has now opened up the possibility for markets and customers to be anywhere.

This just shows how complex the food supply chain can be with the added dimension of current debate about climate change impacts.

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International research in the area of food supply chain management
One example of research within the supply chain area is that in the transport sector, with a particular focus on shipping. Scientists use research to better understand the conditions involved in shipping foods across the world. This is important to commodity exporting countries, an example of such is given here for some recent (2008-9) research from New Zealand and Australia (Zespri International, New Zealand and CSIRO, Australia).

Kiwi fruit generate big business for New Zealand and mos