The Growing UK Food Crisis

One of my greatest frustrations, is the reality that growing numbers of us know there’s a big problem growing with food and keeping us all well fed. But nothing really helpful is happening, because the positions that all the stakeholders have, really aren’t in any way joining up.

‘But the problem is clear!’ I hear you say. And yes, to you, whether you are a farmer, a grower, a fisher, a retailer, a consumer or whatever; the way you see the food problem or any one of a number of them may well be very clear indeed.

The trouble is, everyone is seeing the food problem or rather problems, from their own perspectives and therefore, in a range of very different and sometimes conflicting ways.

Regrettably, being able to see the reality of the situation is one thing. Getting so many different stakeholders or groups of stakeholders to accept that there are alternative perspectives that are just as real as their own perspective to others, is entirely different.

It doesn’t matter whether the perspective is correct, incorrect, misled or only partially formed. If it makes up part of your belief system, the chances are that you are emotionally tied into it and won’t find it easy to see the situation easily in any other way.

During the research and outreach that I have planned as part of The Growing UK Food Problem, I intend to focus on as many of the different perspectives as possible. However, with the risk of a food crisis being very real, and with nobody appearing to even think about how we feed the UK if for instance the borders to our Country  should be bolted closed, it’s the outlook of our Farmers and Producers that is the most important to think about – right beside that of the general public or end consumer i.e. that of our own.

I expect to be challenged at the very least by some of the great farmers that I already know. But what is very clear to me is farmers and producers have become dependent on financial incentives, subsidies and contractual arrangements with big businesses (that in some cases at least arguably have no real reason to be in farming other than making a profit).

This ‘dependency’ on government and ‘free cash’ has already done significant damage to key UK sectors whose participants are arguably some of the most entrepreneurial and creative around. But have been done a massive disservice (as we have) by centralised EU rule making, that is nothing more than globalisation in a localised, franchised or more publicly acceptable form.

Like many of you, I have read of the frequent attempts made by Industry lead Minette Batters on behalf of the NFU, to warn of the impending food security crisis that is very much here already, when considering that only around 50% of our food (or rather the equivalent of) is grown and produced here at home, in the UK.

Instead of listening, the payback is the political stupidity of out of touch politicians. Perhaps best illustrated by the recent comments made by Jacob Rees-Mogg, that echo decades of inept political thinking that stumbles from one crisis to another by out-of-touch rules such as none of the food the UK Population needs to survive, needs come from within the UK.

Farmers and Producers don’t see the alternative way of thinking. Because culturally they see the way things work today as being ‘just the way that it is’.

Yes, there are good reasons why an industry that’s already on its knees doesn’t want to take on the role and responsibilities of repurposing and redefining their role in the food supply chain. At least not without the financial help that a proactive and risk-aware government and political system would have already prioritised for the safety and security of the people it is supposed to represent, perhaps years ago.

But without stepping away from the shibboleths and the ‘ties that bind us’ to the same thinking that created this whole mess, there is a genuine and very credible risk that what is left of UK farming wouldn’t be able to feed the nation if a national emergency were to arrive in a way that many looking more closely now expect. Potentially VERY soon.

And that if the direction of travel should continue, where farmers and producers continue to be led by people and interests who either don’t have a clue, or have other vested interests that are in no way aligned wither with UK food security or sustainable agriculture, we are really no great distance from a situation where the infrastructure and resources that could be redirected to local production today, simply wont be there for us to do so within a very short period of time.