Two weeks until food has gone...

AROUND August 20 we will run out of food. That’s a sobering thought but actually it’s not likely to happen while we can still import food.

The statement does bear further scrutiny, though. This is the date that the country would notionally run out of food if the public had only eaten British produce from January 1.

As a country, we are only about 60 per cent self-sufficient in food. Research shows we import 93 per cent of our fruit and 47 per cent of our vegetables.

Clearly some of this represents crops that we cannot yet grow in the UK, such as bananas, but there is a large and increasing amount of food that could be produced here but is imported instead. This is partly driven by consumers’ desire to have a year-round supply of seasonal food.

As a consumer, should you really care where the food comes from as long as it’s cheap? Well, it seems you do. A recent survey showed that more than half of UK adults want to buy more British food.

Let’s not kid ourselves, though — most people still buy on price but at the same time expect food to reach certain standards. We have a potential problem here by relying on importing more and more of our food. Just cast your minds back to the start of the pandemic and the empty supermarket shelves.

The same thing has happened in the past with extreme weather events slowing down deliveries and panic buying quickly clearing the shelves.

Food rationing lasted for several years after the Second World War because before the conflcit we had relied heavily on importing food from the Empire. Post-war, the Government actively encouraged farmers to produce more food and was very successful, especially after we joined the European Community (as it was then). In fact, it was too successful, producing milk lakes and mountains of grain.

Those days are long gone and now, with our exit from Europe, the looming climate crisis and a change in emphasis for UK agricultural support, food shortages are a possibility. Looking forward, with an increasing world population and a rapidly changing climate, is now the right time to turn English farmers into park-keepers?

At the same time as we rewild and plant trees and wildflowers, we import our food and export our environmental footprint. Countries that cut down vast areas of rainforest to grow soya, for example, cannot be offset by planting a few more trees in the UK.

We currently import grain and meat products from around the world that are grown using pesticides and animal welfare standards that are illegal in the UK. Food labelling is misleading. Processed food can have a Union flag on it if it has been manufactured in Britain using imported raw materials.

There is, however, one label you can trust and that is the Red Tractor, which is only found on food and drink grown and manufactured in Britain. It is certified to rigorous standards that can be traced right back to the field it was grown in.

If food has the Red Tractor logo then it has been responsibly sourced and safely produced from crops and animals that have been well cared for.

As farmers, we are inspected at least once a year to remain as certified farms. All parts of our production process are scrutinised, including pesticide use, storage and machinery maintenance and use. A similar scheme covers livestock production.

We can literally trace every lorry load that leaves here back to the day we planted it, with all applications recorded and checked. The same holds true for fruit, vegetables and salads grown in the UK.

Now we are no longer a member of the EU, our trading relations with the rest of the world are going to become even more important.

I fully understand the need to be able to supply cheap food for our consumers but it has to be at least as safe as that produced by British farmers. We also need to protect the environment and mitigate against climate change.

Farmers are part of the solution and we should be looking to use the centre of our fields (which is more productive and unattractive to wildlife) to produce safe, affordable food while providing habitats for flora and fauna on the margins.

The current muddled and confusing messages from the Government on future farm support don’t fill me with much confidence that we will achieve this sensible balance.