UK too reliant on imported food?

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Permalink Reply by John Grant on June 1, 2009 at 8:24pm

It's a big topic for sure
You prob saw Michelle Obama literally is reviving the 'Victory Garden' at the Whitehouse

I thought self sufficiency in food was higher than that
(came up in my book research https://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/datasets/selfsuff.xls)

It's been falling fast anyway however you measure it
Tim Lang, food policy professor summarised UK food policy as
1. 'leave it to Tesco'
2. 'grow fuel, import food'
(both horrifying thoughts)

Home grown food has been booming; sales of seeds and similar up 60% & food outstripped flowers for the first time probably since the war. I spoke to a sustainability consultant who has done a study on home growing and he said one of the key benefits is extremely low wastage; you pick it as you need it, you accept odd shaped produce and nothing is lost in transit through bumping or ripening too soon (that's actually the single biggest cause of food wastage I believe, according to a study at UMIST)

Not sure about GM. Have been working with a geneticist who invented the test that helped the EU ban GM soy and he says they are chock full of pathogens, harmful to human health (why they are so easy to detect). UK chief scientist is a fan apparently but most environmentalists not on grounds ranging from destroying biodiversity to yet further agri biz exploitation of farmers (as they now own the 'IP' to genetic codes) to why dont we just make the soil healthy and fertile and grow crops that have natural resistance

Some solutions that are emerging;
- allotments (there's a 100,000 person waiting list)
- landshare, yardshare etc; use someone else's garden as allotment and share the veg
- permaculture roof gardens eg http://www.risc.org.uk/garden/
- localfoodshop.co.uk; buy direct from local farms

We dont have much space at our place but may have more tomatoes than we know what to do with after cuttings from last years plant all seem to be taking root.

:J

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Permalink Reply by Carol Horne on June 11, 2009 at 1:00pm

You're right, allotment waiting lists are shamefully long. There is a website putting UK landowners in touch with people wanting to work the land.

http://landshare.channel4.com/

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Permalink Reply by Job S. Ebenezer on October 23, 2009 at 3:52pm

One solution for this problem is to promote urban agriculture using urban waste land such as, root tops, brown fields, unused portion of a parking lot, and many other places where we can grow vegetables and fruits in containers. I have been using Kid's wading pools, old tires, feed sacks and any container that can be recovered from waste stream. Please visit my web site www.technologyforthepoor.com to view the urban gardens that I created in Chicago, Washington DC, Columbus and in India.

At present, Iam working with a group in Athens, Ohio which plans to grow staples in urban areas.

Job S. Ebenezer

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