1 What are the pros and cons of sourcing commodity items in low wage economies? The subject of air miles appears regularly in media headlines today. Here are two contrasting views of what is happening.

Supermarkets and food producers are taking their products on huge journeys, despite pledging to cut their carbon emissions. Home grown products are being transported thousands of miles for processing before being put on sale back in Britain. Jason Torrance, campaigns director of Transport 2000, the environmental transport group, said ‘we are producing food in one corner of the world, packing it in another and then shipping it somewhere else. It’s mad’.