Have we forgotten when we had no choice but to be self-sufficient!? Stop promoting foreign food and back UK farms - Lady Judith McAlpine
Katherine Forster says farmers 'will not give up' in their fight against …
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I suppose if you live in Islington and feed your family and dinner party guests from Planet Organic, Cook, the Passage Pantry, oh and of course Waitrose for staples, you may be forgiven for not having a clue where the raw materials come from. Do you care? If you are a member of Her Majesty's current Government, it seems not.
Waitrose, of course, makes much of its fair dealings with and commitment to British farmers. But even Waitrose imports foreign meat and out of season veg and fruit flown thousands of miles to satisfy a generation that, overall, has no understanding of either where its food comes from or what it really costs.
I have said before that it is time for British farmers and those who support them to act against foreign food being sold in Britain often at lower prices than the real cost of production in Britain.
When shopping choose fresher, tastier and greener British produce over foreign imports.
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Recently, I took a poly-wrapped cauliflower from a supermarket shelf, read the label and put it back. The woman next to me said "What's wrong with it?" "Spanish" said I. "Oh" she said "I hadn't noticed". and put back the one she had put into her trolley. We both then noticed the unwrapped British cauli's on a lower shelf, at a few pence more - but they were bigger, and the leaves were fresh and cool. These we both put into our trolleys.
So: why should we pay more for British cauliflower than one grown in Spain?
The British product is fresher. It will therefore taste better. It hasn't cost vast amounts of fuel to get it to you. Above all: we should be supporting our farmers 100% of the time: not just when there is a war preventing imports. The British farmer's costs are, thanks to our government, considerably higher than the Spaniard's.
When the goods in question come not from Europe but South America, South Africa, New Zealand, the transport costs alone should alert the buyer. Something is not, right? All those young people squealing about "net zero" should be refusing point blank to eat imported vegetables.
Lack of support for farmers will make us fully reliant on overseas foods.
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Should our farmers just give up? Should we become entirely reliant on imports to feed our country? Have we really forgotten the two very recent "World" wars when we had no choice but to be entirely self-sufficient?
Is this government so complacent that it believes there really will never be another such situation? Can no-one understand that building thousands of new homes on what, often, was productive farmland diminishes our ability to feed those who live in those homes?
It is surely bonkers enough that this rash of tiny new homes with no gardens in which grow more than the odd radish is allowed to spring up without solar tiles on every roof and with no provision of shops, medical centres or schools, meaning that the inhabitants will have to burn plenty of fuel to buy food and educate their children who won't see where their food comes from because they are sleeping and playing on the land that once grew the wheat for their bread, or the cauliflowers for supper.
What the Hell? There is bound to be a McDonald's round the corner.
The farming press are full of helpful hints on how to deal with tax; and charismatic ads for help with "Diversification" or "The development potential" of your land.
If I were an arable or dairy farmer, I'd be contacting these companies and selling to the highest bidder now. Er...or would I?
Either way the Government is going to nick 50% of the value of land my family has farmed for generations.
Best carry-on farming 'til the money's run out, then sign on the dole and get something back from the Government? Ah, but we're not illegal immigrants. We'll be at the back of the very long queue...
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