A return to seasonal eating and local produce
SIR – Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey is right (“Eat turnips instead of tomatoes during shortages”, report, February 23): eating seasonal produce is both cheaper and better, for us and for the environment. For instance, Punchnep soup – based on a traditional Welsh recipe, the key ingredient of which is turnip – is sublime. Support British farmers! Annie Urwin
East Hitchin, Hertfordshire
SIR – Tomatoes are a staple in our house, and we prefer a sweet, tasty, vine-ripened variety that is both soft and red. However, in recent weeks, though the supermarket still carries the brand, the tomatoes themselves are hard, pink and sour. For a few pennies more we can buy plump, juicy tomatoess from an independent greengrocer, though they are also sourced from the Continent.
Those of us of a certain age recall times when tomatoes, strawberries, asparagus and other fruit and veg were seasonal and grown within our shores (“The salad crisis means it’s time for a reality check”, Features, February 24). We had no idea what a carbon footprint was then.
Jeremy Biggin
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
SIR – Jamie Blackett (February 22) reports that government “green virtue signalling” and net zero policies are to blame for the current shortages of fresh produce, but the problem is more serious than that.
Summer 2023 should see a decent cereal harvest, but farmers are preparing to remove about 40 per cent of land from production from autumn 2023. The newly published Environmental Land Management Scheme (Elms) will pay farmers to instead grow wildflower meadows or bird-friendly cover crops. While not overly generous, these payments are guaranteed against the backdrop of volatile input costs, weather risks and labour shortages. Farmers will be tied to a five-year contract, so will be unable to reverse this decision even if produce prices rise again.
Elms might be environmentally commendable, but it will not help to feed the nation. Taxpayers are literally being asked to fund future food shortages.
Will Curtis
Raydon, Suffolk
SIR – Sir Keir Starmer has pledged that a third of our food will in future be UK grown (report, February 19).
This is wholly commendable, but how will it be achieved when vast swathes of prime agricultural land are being swallowed up by housing, solar panels and other building developments? Agricultural land is finite – once it’s gone, it’s gone. Meriel Thurstan
Stoke St Mary, Somerset