According to a study carried out by AEA Technology for the UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, while the importation of food incurs costs in terms of congestion, accidents, noise, and pollution, that does not necessarily mean that growing food in the UK for domestic consumption is the less expensive alternative.

The study claims that the social and environmental costs of food transport is around £9 billion per year, over half of that due to road congestion (£5 billion) and accidents (£2 billion) that take over 300 lives per year.

However, the study also concludes that much of the impact and costs of transporting food depend on which mode of transport is used, as transport by ship has much less environmental impact than moving food by air, and the bulk of all emissions come from moving food by heavy goods vehicles, 25 percent of which is devoted to the transport of food in Britain.

Additionally, the report noted that the highest impact in food transportation comes from the consumer driving to the supermarket to buy food. The average consumer in the UK drives 900 miles per year to buy food.

The report also points out that it costs, for example, less energy to import tomatoes from Spain, where they can be grown using natural heat from the sun than it does to grow them in gas-heated hothouses in Britain.

Similarly, the report claims that as long as not too much energy is used to move it around once it arrives in the UK, it costs less to grow wheat organically outside the UK and transport it here than it does to grow it the conventional way at home.

A spokesperson for Friends of the Earth took issue with the reports conclusions, saying that locally produced foods are much better for the environment, but that local and national government must support that effort.