Abstract Food miles is a concept developed in the 1990s as a critique of the negative social and environmental consequences of transporting foods over very long distances. While intended to draw attention to a contemporary problem, the movement of food has a long history to which the concept of food miles can be usefully applied. Drawing upon government correspondence, statistics and personal journals, this article investigates the significance of food miles in establishing the colony of New South Wales, Australia, between 1788 and 1800, with a particular emphasis on sugar. While the some of the issues noted at the end of the twentieth century were present, other factors, such as the high costs of transport, associated waste, and food security were of greater concern to those provisioning the colony and led them to seek to reduce food miles by purchasing supplies in the region. However, other priorities, including preferences for familiar foods and for restricting trade to within the British Empire, created a countervailing pressure which kept food miles very high throughout the period under consideration. This study shows that long before the terminology was coined, food miles played a role in decision making around food supplies and invites the application of the concept to other historical periods.

中文翻译：

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计算澳大利亚早期殖民时期的糖的食物里程

摘要 食品里程是 1990 年代发展起来的一个概念，用于批判远距离运输食品对社会和环境的负面影响。虽然旨在引起人们对当代问题的关注，但食物的流动有着悠久的历史，食物里程的概念可以有效地应用于其中。本文利用政府信函、统计数据和个人期刊，调查了食物里程在 1788 年至 1800 年间建立澳大利亚新南威尔士殖民地的重要性，特别强调糖。虽然存在 20 世纪末注意到的一些问题，但其他因素，例如运输成本高、相关废物、和粮食安全是那些为殖民地提供食物的人更关心的问题，并导致他们试图通过在该地区购买物资来减少食物里程。然而，其他优先事项，包括对熟悉的食物的偏好和将贸易限制在大英帝国内部，产生了一种抵消压力，在整个考虑期间保持食物里程非常高。这项研究表明，早在这个术语被创造出来之前，食物里程就在围绕食物供应的决策中发挥了作用，并邀请将该概念应用于其他历史时期。