Is air-freighted food unorganic?

They are the two certainties of ethical consumerism - that don't quite seem to marry up.

One. That developing countries, particularly in Africa, will prosper, and alleviate poverty only through fair trade access to selling their products

Yet, secondly - flying fresh produce around the world, burns unnecessary carbon and fuels climate change.

So which one wins?

Today as one guardian of organic status - the Soil Association, debates whether to strip air freighted fruit and veg of organic status, the government strongly intervened to make the case for farmers flying in their produce. One organic importer says that burning carbon is essential to livelihoods of farmers and packagers in Ghana.

This is an issue of global significance. Progress on current stalled world trade talks is utterly dependent on offering developing countries access to wealthier markets for their farm produce. The boss of the world trade organisation Pascal Lamy, told Channel 4 News that he fears the emergence of a new green form of protectionism.

A recent government study revealed the complexities of the so-called food miles debate, at least within Europe.

About 100,000 tonnes of tomatoes are grown in the UK each year, but 190,000 are imported from Spain involving a road journey of more than one thousand kilometres

But the study found the Spanish fruit resulted in 630 kilogrammes per tonne of carbon dioxide being generated, while the British tomato produced nearly 2400 kilos per tonne,

The reason: British tomatoes tend to use greenhouses with gas heaters to maintain the ideal growing temperature. But the man who invented food miles still says the idea has some merit.

Nonetheless, so concerned are the world trade authorities that they've commissioned an imminent special report into food miles. In a year all over the world all that is green has been good, and being good has meant being green. But the real ethics of consumerism appear to be a little more complex than that.

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