Our food, where is it from

So I decided to track where our food comes for one month, as a first step into deciding our carbon footprint.

Below I have listed all the items we bought fresh over a 4 week period

European produce
Baby spinach,  bell peppers, strawberries, avocado, cucumbers, lettuce, asparagus
Bacon, gammon ham, fish and prawns

British produce
Onions, mushrooms, potatoes, cabbage,
Pork shoulder joint, pork chops, mince, chicken, eggs
Bread
Milk, cheese, yoghurt, cream

Other counties
Raspberries, Apples, Oranges,

It is clear as a country we don't produce enough of the greenhouse crops. This is probably because it is easier just to truck them in from Europe, this will hopefully change when the country leaves the EU as it will need to create a domestic industry that can compete.
Interestingly all the families stables meat, milk, bread and green vegetables are grown in the UK. It is only what I would class as our luxury vegetables, the vegetables that are not in the current season that come from Europe and further. This is a great sign as the more I look the more I find how much is actually made in the UK.

I'm surprised that we eat a lot of locally grown produce, we shop a lot with price in mind and it makes me happy to see that produce from the UK is competing with the European countries. Now I think this has a lot to do with eating with the seasons as when it comes to fruit and veg I always buy the cheapest Items and they naturally seem to the produce that is in season right now and predominantly locally sourced.
Maybe it is time to start a revolution of eating with the seasons as opposed to eating what we want when we want. It would be interesting if a health institution did a study on people eating habits over a period of 5 years to see if eating the majority of our food with the seasons, what type of affect that would have on health. I defiantly believe it would improve the health of the nation as in the summer months, when we are more active we will eat an array of high calorie fruits and vegetables. Then as we approach the winter months when our activity slows, we would be eating the brassicas and other longer term greens with the root based vegetables that keep. Again eating with the season and making our own food from raw materials inevitably will remove the additives and sugars and syrups used by commercial food producers to improve the shelf life and palatability of their products.

Supermarkets are money making machines and designed for making a profit, they place their product in carefully structured manners to attract their target audiences. High sugar cereals are always low to attract children and luxury and impulse purchases are always at the end of the isles. I'm looking to change the way I shop, by cutting out the middlemen in an attempt to buy my produce where possible from the producers themselves. It is our responsibility to create a balance in the world if we support our local producers they will produce more or even better we can encourage more people to start producing their own produce.