We love green beans in our family. Because it is a firm favourite of Adele's and Jules', it has become a staple food in our household. British green beans are not always easy to find even during the height of the local season (July-August) while air-freighted Kenyan or Tanzanian beans are prominent all year round in supermarkets and fruit stalls. This made me wonder: are we making such a bad environmental choice when buying African French beans as opposed to their locally produced counterparts? I investigated and the answer is, surprisingly, not clear-cut. Sure, air-freighting emits a great deal of carbon dioxide, which contributes to warming up the planet. Most Kenyan beans however are grown the old fashioned way, using manual labour as opposed to diesel-fuelled tractors in European industrial farms. In Kenya, cow muck is the main fertiliser while most European farmers use fossil oil-based ones, which are harmful to the environment. Kenyan low-tech irrigation systems also consume much less energy and water than European sophisticated methods. Finally, to put things in perspective, "driving 6.5 miles to buy your shopping emits more carbon than flying a pack of Kenyan green beans to the UK." (Gareth Thomas, 2008 Minister for Trade and Development, quoted in the Observer, 23 March 2008). On the ethical front, French bean production is a large part of the economic output of Kenya and Tanzania and provides employment and income to many people in the developing world. Buying Kenyan may therefore do more good than protecting the subsidized UK industry. Taste wise, in season the freshness of local production is an obvious advantage, but this has to be compounded with the fact that manually tended vegetables are always better than industrially produced ones. So to conclude, the choice remains yours but as for me, I will buy during their short season fresh beans from small UK producers at farmers markets for their premium taste. When I can't, I will jeep consuming African French beans - in and out of local season - guiltfree.