food for thought

COOLTRIKERCHICK

i thought this would be the right place to talk about this.. if not please move...

on countryfile this morning there was a part of the programme which, to cut a long story short. explained that there is 60 million people in britain, and we got to import 40% of our food as we cant produce enough to feed the population

i am sitting on the fence on this one... are these figures due to the fact its cheaper to import cheaper food, and the supermarkets have squeezed the smaller producer/grower out of the market etc...

what do you think? could britain grow most of its food? especially if the supermarkets didnt reject the odd ball shaped fruit and veg etc?

or is it that we got to import 40% of our food because we expect to have fresh out of season fruit and veg on the shelves etc..

SailorSam

If we stopped importing so much food we would need to change our diets, because there are so many things we can't grow here because of our climate. I'm not so sure these imports are cheaper if you were to look at the true cost of them to our planet.
Prince Charles was on the news this morning warning us he thinks we only have 100 mths to do something about Global Warming, maybe we can start by cutting down on plane travel, not just our own holidays but on the 'fresh' food we all want on our tables.
Consider the cost as well to the people in countries where this food comes from, Shrimps from the far east, there are areas where there is very little fertile land because lots of it is used to produce food to export. The people who profit from this are those at the top, while the poor have no land to feed themselves off.
The same can be seen in Sth America where the cattle barons destroy the rainforest, the indigenous people thrown out of their tribal hones, and the rest of the world has to pick up the bill for problems we have with our environment.
We need to go back to a simpler life, starting with more home grown food.

Yategirl

I agree that we need a simpler life, less travel and to have home-grown food... from this forum, I know a lot of people feel the same way BUT in rl... i find many people just don't care - GW doesn't exist or doesn't bother them so they won't bother... To me, something has to happen to make people realise that things HAVE to change.. until then we won't get people to stop what they are doing and to think about it all...

Back to the OP - I think we can produce the majority if not all of what we need BUT we have to change our diets - less meat, more uk seasonal veg and fruit with "foreign" fruits such as grapes, south african apples etc etc.. as a treat rather than the norm

SailorSam

Thanks for your homepage Yatesgirl.
I've bookmarked it so i can find you again.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

interesting points, do you think with the current topic of conversations about trying to be green, and the increasing interest of growing your own, and the huge jump in sales of veg seeds, that maybe its a start ?

hope you dont mind yategirl but i have added your blog to my blog list

Yategirl

thanks for looking at my blog

mmmhh...... i think the interest in grow your own is a great start... and I believe a huge number of people will keep up with that... but I do wonder how many have jumped onto it being the "in" thing - especially just to say "I have an allotment" or even "I have chickens" but... only time will tell

nodwah

I seem to remeber from geography lessons that the wheat we grow is "soft" wheat with a poor gluten content so nowadays our bread flour is imported mainly from Canada - I may be well out of date with this!

Davesnave

I think the current global (Sorry to say Gordon is right about that, but he's still culpable!) economic crisis will lead rapidly to GB Plc growing a lot more of its own food within a couple of years or so.

With millions on the dole, the government of the day may decide to do something constructive to counter hardship from rising food prices. The obvious answer will be a kind of 'Dig for Victory' resurgence, with areas of waste land being brought into cultivation as allotments. We may also be willing to pay our small farmers more, rather than import the expensive stuff from elsewhere, though this won't be good news for 'elsewhere.'

It has been lovely having all thse goods flown in so we can have whatever we fancy out of season, but the fact is the planet can't support that kind of profligacy, and we're not entitled to it either. Unless Britons pay down their debts, incurred in the last ten years or so, I don't believe they will be able to party again like that. Good thing too.

ceridwen

Good to see someone else thinking along same lines as my "Dig for Victory" thread.

Theres a lot of discussion going on at present in the Transition Town movement about how we are going to feed ourselves in the future. I have added some more links of interest to my "Gardening Notes" blog re this - as its now rather turning into a T.T. Food Group style blog.

http://mygardeningnotes.blogspot.com/

Anyone who has missed the Rebecca Hoskins' tv programme "A Farm for the future" - see the Rob Hopkins' Transition town post from his blog about this - as there are links given in the comments below it.

D&DD

I think its much worse than 40% CTC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/food_matters/foodmiles.shtml

The size/climate of our island does not allow for us to be completely self sufficient in all the produce we would like although we could be much more so if people would eat seasonally etc.
I think during the second world war it rose to 80% that we grew ourselves but that was with literally every space being cultivated.

There will be more price rises this year as the economy is affecting farmers around the world.Most farms work on credit nowadays and as the credit crunch bites their lines of credit are drying up...causing less crops to be planted/harvested leading to yet more price hikes.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

D&DD wrote: »

I think its much worse than 40% CTC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/food_matters/foodmiles.shtml

The size/climate of our island does not allow for us to be completely self sufficient in all the produce we would like although we could be much more so if people would eat seasonally etc.
I think during the second world war it rose to 80% that we grew ourselves but that was with literally every space being cultivated.

There will be more price rises this year as the economy is affecting farmers around the world.Most farms work on credit nowadays and as the credit crunch bites their lines of credit are drying up...causing less crops to be planted/harvested leading to yet more price hikes.

wow so even in wwII with less people in the country we could only manage 80%, as you say those figures quoted on t countryfile are totally out..

do you know what the population was in wwII ?

i must admit.... i know this might sound a bit strange or sad...lol... but i am trying to get myself into a mind set that one day food isnt going to be imported so easily, or the prices are going to go up so much that we will not be able to afford to buy things.., as i am thinking if i can get into that frame of mind, it will help me even more on the growing/producing front

as sometimes i try and put myself into the position of those people in other countries that inflation has risen soooooooo high etc that there is no food etc..



ok you can call the men in the white coats now...:rotfl: