We are constantly urged to save energy, reduce our carbon footprint and have an increased awareness and respect for the environment. There is nothing at all wrong with that but what is missing is government action. Placing all the emphasis on indivgiduals lets government and business off the hook.
What is the point of changes to your life is it is not matched by government action? To some extent I sympathise with people who ask that question. There are, of course, other reason for saving electricity, gas and petrol; the cost. Some try to sell an more eco friendly lifestyle on costs savings alone but that will not work. The market is very fickle and will soon win back customers with special offers and other incentives.
It is the same with food. The news is full of stories about people who have started to grow their own food. I would be the first to applaud anybody who turns their garden over to fruit and veg having been trying to encourage everybody who will listen for the last 20 years to do just that.
While it is good to see so much activity allotments, gardens and urban plots on vacant ground will not feed this or any other nation. It will help to increase food security for some communities but it will have little impact on the food needs of the Nation.
There is one group who seem to have been lost in the rush for more and more allotments – farmers. We still rely on British farmers for most of our food yet there does not seem to be any policy to radically change the way agriculture works in the UK. What we get instead is the time honoured farmer bashing which usually focusses on all the wrong doing and evil that occurs in the countryside. There is never any mention of the food they put on the table.
What we need is a unified, coherent food policy that accepts that times will be much tougher in the near future and that it will be imperative to harness all the resources possible to feed this country and that includes farmers! Without them, quite simply, we will starve.
So, the next government has a huge task; to overhaul UK agriculture, encourage more home produced food, break the power that supermarkets have, actively encourage local growing projects and generally move to a more secure food system. Not a lot to expect really.
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