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Description

A game looking at how far food travels to come to the UK

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Instructions

In the UK we produce lots of food that we eat all year round, such as milk, cheese, butter, yoghurts, eggs, chicken, beef, pork, lamb, potatoes and carrots. Whereas food such as strawberries, raspberries, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples are only produced at certain times of the year.
On the other hand, there are lots of other foods that we can’t grow and produce in the UK, meaning we have to import them on planes or ships.
Explain to the group that every food item has something that is known as ‘food miles’, this is how far something has travelled before we eat it. The lower the food mile, the more local the product is, and it is better for the environment. The higher the food miles, the further away the product was grown, and it is worse for the environment.
For this next activity, the teams will be matching items of food, with their food miles, to learn about how far many of the foods travel before they get to our plates.
You could turn this activity into a game, where the groups need to search for/earn all the food mile cards, before they match up the cards to the food miles.
Depending on the ability of your group, you may wish to give them a copy of a world map to help them in their matching.
Once the groups have matched up their cards, reveal the answers to them and then discuss how there is a big difference between UK grown/produced produce and those that are imported from overseas.
UK Strawberries – 10-250 miles
UK Grapes – 10-250 miles
Imported Strawberries – 200-2200 miles
Imported Grapes – 800-6300 miles
Bananas – 4900-5900 miles
Rice – 600-5900 miles
Oranges – 800-6300 miles
Coffee Beans – 4900-6300 miles
Cocoa beans/chocolate – 3200 miles

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