The concept of 'fair miles' has been developed in response to consumer interest in 'food miles', which is a measure of the distance food travels from farm to plate. Consumers are concerned about this distance as a proxy for carbon emissions, and therefore the contribution to climate change. Researchers at the International Institute for Environment and Development argue, however, that consumers should not look only at distance but also at the source of food. They say that vegetables air-freighted from East Africa to the United Kingdom produce a fraction of the emissions that transporting food by road within the UK causes. They add that more than a million poor farmers depend on this trade and argue that moves to limit food choices on the basis of miles travelled will harm these farmers' li