I often write about food production in this unstable world, and today’s world news only reinforces the message. I’m writing this on the last night of a short visit to Turkey. Once self-sufficient in food, the country has badly damaged its agriculture through over-use of underground aquifers. Today it imports just under seven per cent of its food – still far better than the UK, where we manage only 65 per cent self-sufficiency. Some UK sectors are critical: fresh vegetables at just 53 per cent, and fresh fruit a shocking 15 per cent.
My cousin, commanding officer of HMS Prince of Wales, is in the Far East, on exercises with allied navies against very real current threats. He and his crew know they are preparing for war.
Back home, most people remain blissfully unaware of how dangerous the world has become. Many commentators now predict a world war within three to five years … if that comes, the UK will be in a dire position, unable to feed ourselves.
We need a government that genuinely supports farmers and encourages them to grow more food, ensuring we can feed the nation and survive without imports if disaster strikes.
Instead, ministers seem blind to the collapse in morale across farming. Too many farmers are leaving the industry – some even making devastating life decisions to avoid inheritance tax. In schools, too, we fail to teach children where food really comes from, or how fragile the supply chain becomes in times of conflict.
The answer is simple: we must keep lobbying our MPs. We need their backing to grow more, buy more and eat more local. Food production must return to the school syllabus. After the Second World War, Winston Churchill urged farmers to produce more to feed the nation. Keir Starmer should take up the same cry.
It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee – or better still, cut the carbon footprint and smell the farmyard muck!
Barbara Cossins
