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Yesterday I started an experiment: I want to see how hard it is to nourish myself entirely with British produce for a week.

These days you can carbon-offset everything you do by paying somebody to plant a tree for you every time you fart. I just want to see how hard it is to avoid food that has been flown across the world and rely on nationally-grown produce for a week. I am also interested to see if there is a difference in price.

The day was off to a not very encouraging start when I had to have a cup of coffee. I was planning to have some herbal tea, but I noticed it was 'blended and packed from imported ingredients'. The oats in my porridge were Scottish though.

At the supermarket on the way to work I struggled to find some British fruit (unsurprisingly for mid-January), but left with a bag of English Cox apples that even had the name of the growers on it (I checked them out, they happen to be located in the main town as the supermarket's headquarters – a good sign).

Finding meat for my sandwich was harder. I had never read the labels, but it turns out I've been eating meat from a variety of countries. In the end I scavenged a couple of packs of English roast beef (made from 'assured topside of beef from farms in the UK' – and half price too), to be eaten on their own because I could not be sure any of the loaves on sale were made entirely with English ingredients. Even the buns I bake weekly, and that I was planning to eat for lunch, were made with Danish butter.

I did not know that the supermarket's own brand yogurts for my elevenses and afternoon snack are made in France, so I went for one of the leading brands instead. They are practically the same, but the raspberry one is smooth (what's wrong with crunchy pips?). Oh, and they cost 44p instead of 27. No indication of where they are made, their website tells me that not only are they made in the UK, but they also use milk from local farms. I like that.

I resisted the urge to pick up a Double Decker chocolate bar (made in Birmingham, I think) and settled for some sugar free Airwaves (made in Plymouth). Later in the day I also had to politely refuse a shortbread biscuit a colleague offered me, because I did not feel like asking him to read out the ingredients first.

I continued to make an exception for coffee throughout the day, but I switched to fairtrade. Not sure it makes a difference environmentally, but it sure silences a guilty conscience for a bit.

I stopped at our local large supermarket on the way home, and it took me more than twice as long to pick up the usual stuff because I had to read all the labels.

My dinner consisted of more UK beef, UK carrots and UK beetroot. Non-UK lemon juice on the carrots, and the meat was fried in olive oil (so cheap that the bottle does not even say where it is from, but I bet it is not Yorkshire).

In the evening I baked another batch of bread for my lunches, this time with English butter.

The first day was not too hard. It certainly took longer to shop, but the novelty factor kept me going. I think condiments and spices will have to be imported, unless there is a choice.

Yesterday I found it impossible to buy lettuce for my usual evening meal big salad; all I could find was from Egypt and Morocco.

But I was surprised that I enjoyed very much my roast beef at lunch (not a choice I would normally go for).

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