New – The Food Tracer now lists UK regional distribution centres
Last night, BBC One aired the first instalment of their new series Britain From Above, examining the infrastructure of the United Kingdom, from the morning rush hour to the distinctly British evening power surge when over a million kettles are turned on after Eastenders.
The dance of necessity
The program’s appeal lies in its insight into the complex dance of goods, data, power and water that goes on all around us, often unseen and rarely noticed. Flickering GPS traces of some of these movements beautifully illustrated the endless frenetic activity across the UK.
Our food’s journey
Food is, of course, one of our most essential requirements and the feeding of Britain requires an extraordinary infrastructure of production, processing and distribution. Last night’s program touched only briefly on the distribution of food by container and truck, with a rare and fascinating glimpse of the inner workings of a supermarket distribution centre.
These great warehouses (the one shown covers an area equivalent to 13 football pitches) lurk anonymously beside many of our motorway junctions, their bland exteriors hiding the relentless movement of most of our food in, around and out again, destined for the supermarket shelves.
The journey of our food
Arrival from afar
The arrival of goods from abroad by container ship takes place on a still greater scale, the stacked giant boxes and buzzing cranes defy appreciation of their actual size. More than anything, they simply look like toys.
Containers are perhaps mostly thought of as carrying consumer goods like clothes, toys and DVD recorders, but much of our food travels this way too. Only the most perishable or urgently needed foodstuffs justify the expense of air freight, with most imported processed food shipped by container. Even some meat and fresh produce from far afield is transported in refrigerated containers.
Container shipping
Farming from above
The extensive Britain From Above website also has a good gallery of aerial photographs of farming in Britain by Jason Hawkes. The geometry of intensive production – from pigs and poultry to cereals and salads – is strikingly beautiful and frighteningly alien.
