Why a self-reliant Britain would run out of food by this FRIDAY...
BRITONS would run out of food by this Friday if the nation was solely reliant on homegrown produce, according to new research.
Analysis by the National Farmers’ Union has found the proportion of the food that we consume that is produced in the UK has plummeted from 80 per cent in 1980 to just 64 per cent now.
It means that without imports, our supplies would run out on August 21 – or ‘self-sufficiency day’ as it has been called by the NFU. Experts say the alarming statistics should be a wake-up call for the Government to prioritise food supply and for the public to buy more British produce.
Professor Tim Lang, from City University’s Centre for Food Policy, said: ‘A country that has low self-sufficiency puts itself at risk of any geopolitics and we are in exactly that sort of uncertainty now. The world is facing extreme pressures from people, food, climate and landmass. Britain is still acting as though we have an empire. It doesn’t and Britain is assuming others will feed us.’
According to the NFU research, Britain now imports 93 per cent of its fruit and 47 per cent of its vegetables. Minette Batters, president of the NFU, said the coronavirus pandemic had illustrated the need for better food security. ‘Covid has stretched everything to the limit and we have to take a different line on food security and the amount of food that is produced here,’ she said.
‘It’s the perfect storm of events. This self-sufficiency day sends a message to the Government for the need to really prioritise food.’
Despite Britain’s £24billion food and drink trade deficit, just 0.9 per cent of agricultural land in the UK is used to grow crops for human consumption. Prof Lang urged consumers to choose more homegrown, seasonal products and called for a system similar to that in France, where he said 20 per cent of food stocked by supermarkets has to be sourced locally.
The Mail on Sunday’s Save Our Family Farms campaign seeks to ensure that sub-standard imports are kept off shelves in the event of post-Brexit trade deals with the US.
Backing the campaign, Ms Batters – who runs a tenanted farm in Wiltshire – said: ‘We are at a major reset point.
‘Do we want to prioritise our self-sufficiency and our home production or do we want to say we don’t care about agriculture and the food that we produce and just import it? I think a lot of people in this country have drawn a line in the sand and said we want high-quality food.’