Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables

Different fruits and vegetables will be “in season” (at their peak and more readily available) at particular times of year. Therefore, if you eat “seasonally” you will be eating food that is at its best at that time [1] and more likely to be produced locally, cutting down on transport and thus helping to reduce carbon emissions, and supporting local producers. Seasonal food should be cheaper too, and one of the main concerns of the Food Ethics Council [2] – that processing, packaging and distribution can cancel out the environmental benefits of being grown in season – can be dealt with, for plant products at least, by buying unpackaged organic food from local independent farmers.

Although this is a separate topic, it is worth noting that while several sources (including some listed below) give details of which meats are in season, the situation with meat and dairy products is more complicated as varying farming methods can make a significant difference to environmental impacts, and as these products require high energy input [3] eating less of them overall is likely to be more helpful to the environment than eating the same amount but changing to in season products from local sources. Therefore, for the rest of this article, “food” should be taken as referring to plant products only.

If you’re trying to reduce the environmental impact of your food purchases, it is important to make sure that even if you’re buying local organic fruit and vegetables, they are in season. While locally grown produce will clearly have lower food miles than something that’s been flown thousands of miles, if it’s been grown in Britain out of season it could be more harmful to the environment than the same food grown seasonally in a relatively nearby country – a good example given in BBC article examining the ins and outs of emissions-reducing eating is that a tomato grown in a greenhouse in the UK can generate three times more emissions as one grown under natural sunlight in Spain [4].

While the Food Ethics Council stress that seasonal eating is only part of a move towards a more sustainable food system and reduced greenhouse gas emissions with various factors needing to be taken into account [2], there is a general consensus [e.g. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8] that food that’s in season and locally and organically grown has a lower environmental impact compared to the transport and increased artificial input (e.g. heat, light, fertilisers) needed to obtain or grow foods out of season, is fresher, tastes better and is more nutritious. This is because food that has been picked early to allow time for transportation hasn’t been able to fully develop its flavours, and the long time between harvesting and sale means that the nutrients in it will have degraded more than in produce that has only been picked very recently. Additionally, foods will naturally contain the nutrients and minerals most needed by the body at the time of year when they are in season [8].

There are a number of websites that aim to promote seasonal eating and give advice on what to buy at different times of year, for example:

Eat Seasonably is a campaign supported by various organisations and retailers, including the National Trust and the Soil Association. The website [1] provides advice on what to eat and what to grow each month along with tools such as an event finder, an interactive and downloadable calendar, a printable fridge guide and advice on other ways to eat more sustainably.
Love British Food [8] gives information on why to eat seasonal food, where to find it and British Food Fortnight (which runs annually in September/October) and has a downloadable at-a-glance type guide to what’s in season when.
The BBC Good Food website has a seasonality table showing when foods are coming into season and at their peak, along with recipes [9]
Eattheseasons.co.uk [10] promotes understanding of food seasons and provides a lot of information about why and how to eat seasonally. It has various ways of finding out what’s in season, including listings by month and a downloadable circular calendar. It lists not only British seasonal foods, but also shows when foods that are not grown in Britain, e.g. kiwi fruit, are in season in Europe to avoid transporting them from further afield, along with suggestions of when is best to eat more exotic foods if you really can’t live without them. There is also information on each food (including recipes), which foods are in season during the current week and other resources such as details of markets and cookbooks.

While it’s worth checking in supermarkets (particularly if farmers’ markets aren’t convenient), as many now sell specifically British, in season foods, bear in mind these could still have been transported hundreds of miles – check how far away in the UK they were grown, as well as how much packaging they have. As long as they are relatively nearby, buying direct from farmers or producers, for example at a farmers’ market, is a good place to start for buying fresh, local, organic and seasonal food. The Local Foods website [11] lists farmers and producers, including farmers’ markets and farm shops, who sell directly to the public, by region.