The expression food mile first emerged in the early nineties, but it has gained currency more recently in the context of escalating concerns about climate change and global warming. It is modelled on expressions like air mile, a unit for measuring how far a plane travels, and nautical mile, a unit for measuring distances at sea.

The expression food mile first emerged in the early nineties, but it has gained currency more recently in the context of escalating concerns about climate change and global warming. It is modelled on expressions like air mile, a unit for measuring how far a plane travels, and nautical mile, a unit for measuring distances at sea.