Jacob Musyoki: the carbon footprint of the average Kenyan is less than a 10th that of the average Brit. Photo by permission of Fred Pearch
Flying shrink-wrapped green beans from Kenya to Britain is regarded a green crime. The carbon emissions involved are too great, the message has been - think of the air miles. But it's not quite as simplistic as that.
I have spent the past two years investigating where my food, clothing and much else comes from for a new book. In one chapter, I traced my M&S Kenyan beans and visited the farmers who grow the beans.
I met Jacob Musyoki on his two-acre farm in a steep river valley east of Nairobi in Kenya, where he grows beans for Homegrown, the biggest UK importer of fresh veg from Kenya.
Jacob, and the thousand or so other Homegrown suppliers, are not slaving away on company plantations. They are independent smallholders, paid good prices in return for reliable deliveries.
They don't have cars or motorbikes. But they have TVs (Jacob watches English football and wears an Arsenal cap) and they can send their children to school and buy them books and a uniform.
Jacob is proud that his home had a concrete floor rather than mud. He is in his late 20s. Before he joined Homegrown he made £22 a month. Now it is £150 most months.
Do we really want to pull the plug on Joseph and his fellow farmers?
I am struck that many of those who campaign against buying Kenyan beans also claim to be in favour of using "trade not aid" to help Africa. Spot the contradiction?
Don't get me wrong. I am absolutely in favour of tackling climate change. And flying those beans to Britain does emit carbon dioxide. But this is about fairness. The "carbon footprint" of the average Kenyan is less than a 10th that of the average Brit.
So surely it is unethical to sacrifice the livelihoods of people like Jacob and his family, just because boycotting their beans happens to be a painless way for us Western consumers to "do something" about climate change. We should be the people who take the pain for cleaning up greenhouse gas emissions. Not poor Kenyan farmers.
I have a simple proposal. Cut your emissions instead by taking the bus to Tescos.
Me? Before going there to see the farmers, I only occasionally bought Kenyan green beans. I buy them more often now. And that's a boast, not a confession.
Fred Pearce's new book, Confessions of an Eco Sinner, is published by Eden Project Books, £12.99; ISBN 978-1-905-81110-6
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