One aspect of the climate change discussion that has attracted a great deal of media attention, particularly in Europe, is ‘food miles’. The concept that the further food has to travel, the worse its impact on the environment is one that – although flawed – is easy for consumers to grasp and for domestic import-competing food producers to support. We investigate the economic implications of food miles-induced preference changes using an economy-wide analysis. We find that welfare losses relative to GDP are largest in New Zealand and several Sub-Saharan African nations. Moreover, for some distance-preference change relationships proportional welfare costs are significantly larger in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere.