Comment on the world today, social issues, the human condition, how we behave and why we behave the way that we do, how and why we interact with others the way that we do, how we can improve life by understanding and changing our thoughts and behaviour
Critical thinking – or perhaps the significant absence of it in a world that has been taken over by a constant barrage of data from information technology, is a skill for life that could easily have stopped us all from reaching the point the U.K. is now at – had we all been using it and continued to use it throughout our adult lives.
Yes, the simple act of asking questions about anything and everything that you don’t already know or genuinely trust to be true, instead of trusting any source that doesn’t actually have direct human interaction involved, has become a critical contributor to every problem that the Country has.
Pretty much none of us have been policing the opportunity to make decisions about our lives and the people who affect them which now come at us in a near ceaseless flow.
This isn’t to say or suggest that we aren’t using filters of our own. Indeed many of us are.
But the filters we use are created, shaped and modified based upon whatever it is that we at any particular moment believe.
It is these beliefs themselves, which are too often formed by the conclusions we make about the data we consume. Data that we rarely seem to bother checking, especially when it has come from a remote source that we have only found reason to agree with or like.
Coming to the place where we can understand or comprehend just how much power we genuinely have in everything we do, based upon the decision or choice to consider everything we are told, differently, to how we have done or currently do so, is no little thing.
What is more, the fact that so many of us already believe that we are thinking differently, when it is only our filters that have actually changed, means that the ‘awakening’ that so many believe to be now underway, is likely to be nothing of the sort. Just a different pathway that’s going to lead to much more of the same chaos, perhaps even more quickly than what we have already experienced before.
Acting on fear usually makes the outcome we fear more likely
Whilst the world runs upon fear at levels which some will spend entire lifetimes without feeling the need to contemplate, the irrationality of fear mongering through electronic and remote mediums that we fail to question, is disproportionate to what we would walk away with if the same stories could only come from sources or rather people that we interact with in our day to day lives.
People and news orgs with platforms, numbers of followers, subscribers and likes that give them the benefit of remote credibility are sensationalising everything more now than ever before, just to generate clicks that will lead to those numbers continually going up, when those numbers are what most of us look for when we make a cursory decision that lets us ‘know’ the source is something we can trust.
So when we willingly believe the sources online and unquestionably trust the information coming to us from whichever direction we have lowered our drawbridge, and then the only message that comes at us is one that promotes desperation and fear, we are all becoming increasingly susceptible to the creation of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because we are responding to a problem or level of problems that don’t actually exist.
The absence of real Leadership
People and public figures that we might previously have been able to trust are themselves very afraid and in many cases have no idea how to act.
This means that otherwise non-existent realities that those battling their own fears, following their own agendas and those of the platforms that share them, are spreading compelling narratives without any real understanding or cognisance of the implications or likely consequences of what they are doing, and what the fear that wouldn’t exist without them, is well on the way to delivering.
This is not to say that the UK isn’t in a very difficult place. Because it is.
But it is also vitally important to recognise that the UK is currently sat within a very dangerous situation that is getting progressively worse and will continue to do so, until we have leaders or lead ourselves through change which rejects the key pillars and shibboleths of this highly destructive status quo.
The Law of Unexpected Consequences is currently running everything
We are at a crossroads or fork where choices that we are making or refusing to make could end up taking us all towards outcomes that are poles apart.
The fear that all streams of media are now generating is causing many to want to run away. And when we are running – or thinking in that way, it means that we are indulging irrational fears, rather than questioning them or more importantly the validity of whatever is triggering them.
When we are running and hiding, we are not thinking, and we can and will only contribute to the growing mess.
Indeed, we may be about to condemn ourselves to unnecessarily experiencing a very dark place with implications for our own future – just because we took at face value whatever took us there in the first place.
It’s time to be objective
There is a very broad context to consider. However, the breadth is necessary because so many of us who see the world differently, believe different things and apply that understanding with very different filters.
We are all contributing to the growing mess that is building throughout all parts of society. Because we all believe that the positions that we currently have on everything are exclusively right.
Today, the left blames everything on the right and the right blames everything on the left in what seems like an endless focus on amplifying everything that’s either not-normal, or is massively wrong.
Meanwhile, there is not even the merest hint of acknowledging the real causes of all the problems, and certainly no time for leaders to actually try leading and begin suggesting what needs to change – no matter how hard it may be – so that we can all begin to experience a world where everything is going right for everyone and not just the few.
This is now a 360-degree problem
The political and therefore the leadership problem we are facing is that the alternatives to everything and everyone in politics that are already accepted as wrong are not alternatives at all.
We are literally plagued in every direction by False Prophets using fear to push everyone who isn’t questioning everything they say, and why they are saying it, towards their cause. No matter how similar and potentially worse than what we are already experiencing it might be.
To be clear, nothing is as it seems right now. This is an equation that works ALL ways.
Some problems, like the economic picture, the state of our political system and the motivations and influences on power are considerably worse than we might like to believe.
Whereas the realities that underpin so many of the things that we are fearful of are not anyway near as threatening as they appear.
They will only become so, if the responsibility for dealing with them is left either in the hands of those who are controlling them today, or under those who protest that they and only they have the solutions that will sort them all out – all too often presented with a very simplistic and therefore unexplained view of what they would actually do.
For as long as people refuse to take back the power they actually have, a very discombobulated reality we must also face is that any of the leaders and political parties that we currently have, could change direction and begin to do what’s genuinely good and right for all of us, at any time.
However, as time and opportunity has demonstrated time and again, they will not.
Until we accept responsibility and become accountable, we will be damned by every outcome
The uncomfortable truth that few will face up to is that the wrong choice and making the wrong choice, because it’s the only choice, is still the wrong choice – even when it may seem to be better than what we have to choose from or than whatever we have experienced before.
All of the political parties that we can choose from are completely under the sway and direction of establishment power and views, and will inevitably maintain the status quo, which is on a trajectory that can only see everything getting worse.
It will not take anyone who chooses to employ their own skill of critical thinking and the analysis that soon accompanies it to see that once the realities that accompany the rhetoric have been investigated, there is really very little to detect any difference between the motives and directions of all of our elected politicians or those who wish to be elected that will differentiate them to the degree that they are capable of delivering outcomes that are so markedly different that we will be able to tell them apart.
Yet there isn’t any problem the UK faces that cannot genuinely be solved, if there is the will and capability of leadership to do all that will be necessary to address the problems at their root or cause.
Unfortunately, instead of leaders, we have an entire political class filled with glory seeking middle managers who believe that success is measured only through the possession of power.
This blog was originally published on my Foods We Can Trust website on 13 June 2025
Writing and publishing the pages of Foods We Can Trust as I go, does mean that I have had the opportunity to reflect upon and even mention relevant topics from the news as I go.
A few days ago, at the end of May, it was pleasing to see The Times report that former President of the National Farmers Union Minette Batters (Who has taken the step of working for the government, now that she is in the Lords) suggested that future housing developments should include Allotments.
Sadly, comments that followed on social media branded this as ‘Everythingism’; a term that like many others that is now being used to dismiss anything with deeper meaning or a point that runs contrary to common or ‘accepted’ thought.
Allotments, or rather the Allotments that are available for people to rent today are popular. This point was proven well when I did a search as I have been writing and found that the Local District Level Authority where I live, Cheltenham Borough Council has a waiting list for the Allotments under its control that can extend from a matter of weeks to a couple of years.
Contrary to what some might immediately think, I am not criticizing CBC or any Local Authority in any way for not having Allotments immediately available today – as it’s great that they are there and can be available. Popularity does of course vary and the last thing that many people think about today when it comes to Food, is Growing Your Own.
The need for us to contribute to Food Security
If you’ve read the page ‘What is Food Security’, you will now have a better idea of what it means to be ‘Food Secure’ and why we really aren’t Food Secure, anywhere in the UK today.
Unfortunately, finding a way to help enough people understand that we are all taking a massive risk by trusting that the Food we eat everyday will always be available and that as if by magic, the Food Chain will keep on doing what it does today, isn’t easy.
Especially as everything that the Government is currently doing is reinforcing the message that the UK doesn’t need Farms and that the Food of the Future will be manufactured in warehouses and factories – sadly without any regard for what that will really mean for us all in terms of not being able to eat Foods We Can Trust.
If we continue to wait until there is a real problem with the UK Food Supply, before we begin taking steps to ensure that we always have enough Food available and ready to Feed everyone across the UK, we are all likely to experience Food Shortages quickly. And as time goes by, following the arrival of a serious Food Supply Shortage, more and more of us may even be forced to go without.
Food Shortages are not a problem that any of us should be taking lightly. But neither should any of us – and particularly our politicians – be taking it for granted that enough Food of any kind will always be available for everyone – as is clearly the case, right now.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of understanding the risk to UK Food Security and then considering the steps that need to be taken to ensure that we will always have enough Food, is this:
The UK Food Chain is currently unable to Feed the UK Population without considerable supplies being imported from Overseas.
If that’s difficult enough to accept, the next point we need to understand is this:
If Overseas Food Imports were stopped, UK Farms and Food Producers would be able to provide significantly less than the 54-58% of ‘self-produced’ or ‘UK-Produced’ Food that UK People would immediately need. Because the Food Supply and Logistics Chain isn’t set up to prioritise British Consumers today, and very few of the Farms the UK has would be able to supply Food that is ready to be prepared to eat, direct.
To add some further perspective, we must then accept that:
The Farms across the UK that are geared up and have the systems in place to provide Food to us direct are likely to already being doing so. They are what we already know and use as our Local Farm Shops and Food Businesses that are selling us the Food that we already know to be coming from Local Farms, Harbours and Fisheries before being turned into Dairy Products, Breads or any of the Foods that are available to us through recognizable Local Suppliers or direct delivery services.
The question of the Food We Eat, is now Food for Thought.
In real terms, that means that if the Border around the UK (That’s transport by Air, Sea or the Channel Tunnel) closed for any prolonged period, there would only be the equivalent of enough Food available for 1 in 9 People – in relative terms.
Whilst I will always champion UK Farmers as some of the most entrepreneurial and creative People I have the pleasure to know, the time it would take to transform and restructure the UK Food Chain so that it works as it arguably always should – in our best interests and for us all, following a crisis or breakdown in the Food Supply – would probably be a period of months, before everyone was being supplied with at least some Foods that we should all have available to us, rightnow.
We will not have the luxury of time for the Food Chain to change, if we wait for Food Shortages before we begin
Whilst it would be beneficial for the majority of Our Farmers to begin restructuring their businesses to work towards Local Food Chains and UK Food Security through self-sufficiency today – for themselves as well as the UK Population, many remain tied to the way that the Food Chain in the UK has been evolved by the Global Model (Most strikingly, through the UK relationship with the EU).
Many UK Farmers still believe that a change of government or the politicians themselves, will be all it will take for them to get paid more or to be subsidized further for what they do, so that they receive a higher, or more appropriate income than they do now.
However, Farmers and existing Food Growing Businesses are not going to survive, if they do not adapt their businesses to operate independently as part of Local Food Chains.
Because the economic system we have today doesn’t value independence in the Food Chain and is already actively working to remove it.
At some point, probably sooner rather than later, UK Farms will be called upon to make this necessary change.
Sadly, as things stand today, this is likely to be when the UK is already in crisis – as it will only be when we are in the middle of a Food Crisis, where everyone is experiencing the problem themselves, that the real meaning and need for genuine UK Food Security is going to make sense.
However, that doesn’t mean that we cannot do something to help, right now, if we can see that hope and waiting for tomorrow is very unlikely to save the day.
Growing Your Own is the most trustworthy way to source Food
Whilst talking about the role we all have to play in the UKs future Food Security might feel like a deviation from the direction of Foods We Can Trust, it is important enough for us to be aware of and to understand the real benefits from having and developing access to home grown, community grown and Food that comes direct from Local Farms and Growers, today.
Just having Food to Eat is important. But prioritising Food Chains that supply the Foods We can Trust is essential.
There is no better way to be sure that we are eating Foods We Can Trust than if we Grow Our Own Food. Whether it be at home, within community allotments or gardens or other shared spaces, where we can be sure of everything used to Grow Our Food, as well as the continuation and availability of the supply.
Grow Your Own Foods We Can Trust
As we have discussed above, there are two very good reasons to Grow Your Own:
Growing Our Own Food will at least increase the Food we have available, and
Growing Our Own Food is the surest way to know we are eating Foods We Can Trust
There are other advantages to Growing Your Own Food too, such as producing Food that we can all share with others, or exchange for different types of Food or other essentials that we might need in a crisis.
However, one of the biggest, and probably best reasons to Grow Your Own (beyond having a supply of our own Food to Eat) is that the process of growing, harvesting, cultivating and handling Home Grown Food can be very good for our mental health or sense of wellbeing, as well as the activity required to do so contributing positively to our physical health.
Foods We Can Grow Ourselves
Understanding and being open to the idea of DIY Food Growing is where the whole idea of Grow Your Own can become even more interesting and exciting, as the list of the different Foods We Can Grow Ourselves is extensive!
In fact, what We Can Grow Ourselves may only be limited by the space and resources that we have available we have.
To illustrate just how broad the list of Foods We Can Grow Ourselves and the different ways that we can Grow Our Own Food really is, we will now share lists of the different Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs and Animals that we can grow ourselves, along with suggestions of the different ways that we can grow them.
The following list IS NOT exhaustive and there may be many more!
Please note that links to organisations, businesses and groups that are added anywhere on these Pages about Grow Your Own are for information sharing purposes only. They are not recommendations and certainly not endorsements of any other organisation, product or the advice and suggestions that they provide.
Vegetables that can be Grown at Home
Growing Vegetables at home probably feels like the most obvious type of Food to grow when it comes to Growing Your Own.
However, did you know just how many types of different Vegetables there are that we can Grow Ourselves in the UK?
List of Grow Your Own Vegetables in the UK:
Aubergines
Asparagus
Beans
Beetroot
Broad Beans
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbages
Carrots
Cauliflower
Calabrese
Celeriac
Celery
Chard
Chicory
Chilli Peppers
Chinese Broccoli
Chinese Cabbage
Courgettes
Cucumbers
Endive
Florence Fennel
French Beans
Garlic
Globe Artichokes
Jerusalem Artichokes
Kale
Kohl Rabi
Leeks
Lettuce
Marrows
Mizuna & Mibuna
Okra
Onions
Pak Choi
Parsnips
Peas
Peppers
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Radishes
Rhubarb
Rocket
Runner Beans
Salad Leaves
Salad Onions
Salsify
Shallots
Soya Beans
Spinach
Squash
Swedes
Sweetcorn
Sweet Potatoes
Tomatoes
Turnips
Please note that I will cover the different methods that can be used to Grow Your Own, depending upon the resources and space that you have available once I have finished listing what you can grow.
There are lots of Vegetables that we can Grow Ourselves. But the list doesn’t stop there, as we can also Grow Herbs – which will of course help to add flavour to the other Foods that we Grow Ourselves when we have them available.
Vegetables and Herbs are likely to be the easiest and, in many cases, the quickest Foods that we can Grow at home.
However, if you have access to the space and resources necessary, there is a surprisingly long list of Fruits that we can Grow Ourselves in the UK too!
Some will be surprised to learn that it is possible to keep some kinds of animals for Food at home.
In fact, historically, it was quite normal to keep some animals as a source of Food for domestic consumption.
Perhaps the most obvious animals to keep at Home for Food would be Chickens. Not necessarily as a source of fresh meat. But as a source of fresh eggs. Which anyone who has had home grown eggs or eggs straight from a local Farm will know often taste much better than those we buy in supermarkets or online!
Other types of poultry, rabbits and fish are different animals that can more easily be kept as a source of Food at home.
However, it is important to be aware that these and other animals that are sometimes kept at home for Food such as pigs, goats and anything else that you might have space for, may need to be registered or cared for under licenses that it may be difficult for a normal home to hold.
As such, it may be better left to a local farm or community small holding to keep them.
Like pets, any animals kept for Food require time, commitment and unavoidable expense which may mean that keeping them is simply impractical.
Methods for Growing Vegetables, Fruit and Herbs Ourselves
Learning to Grow Your Own doesn’t have to be boring and certainly doesn’t have to follow any kind of rigid model or set plan.
In fact, like all of our homes, the resources we have and the time we have available will be different. So, Growing Our Own Food doesn’t need to be the same as what anyone else does, even if we are growing the same Foods!
Yes, having some ground available in a garden, allotment or open space is of course a fantastic place to begin. But we don’t need a garden to Grow Our Own Food and there are ways that we can grow all sorts of different things simply by making better use of the space that we have already got.
Here are the different ways that we can Grow Our Own Food, either alone or in collaboration with neighbours or members of our local communities:
Grow Bags
Perhaps the simplest, quickest and most cost-friendly way to get started with Growing Your Own Food will be to use Grow Bags.
Garden Centres, Farm Shops, Country Stores and at certain times of the year, even supermarkets will have Grow Bags available to buy.
Grow Bags can be a fun, efficient and low-cost way to learn about growing Food, without making significant commitments with resources, money and time.
The range of Vegetables and Herbs that can be grown using Grow Bags may not be as extensive as it would be with other spaces and resources to use. But there is still plenty that you can try!
Space for growing any type of Food at home can be a challenge, and I’m certainly not taking it for granted that you have a garden or space available inside.
If you don’t have space outside or inside near a patio window or perhaps a conservatory area, growing Food using a Window Box may be another way to get started:
By this point it may be becoming clearer that Growing Your Own Food can be much easier to begin than we might have assumed!
Now that we’ve covered Grow Bags and Window Boxes, it might also be helpful to consider that Food can grow very well in containers of all sorts of descriptions.
This includes old buckets, watering cans and even dustbins (that have been cleaned out!).
If you have limited space where there is access to daylight in your Home and you enjoy a little DIY with technology, perhaps you could give Hydroponics a try.
Hydroponics – or what is known by some as Aquaculture, is the process of growing Food using water-based systems that provide nutrients and whatever the plant-based Foods you are growing through the water itself, which can be circulated around even a very small system that might even be small and compact enough to sit on a shelf.
Hydroponics supplies are now widely available, and it would be well worth doing an online search for them if you are interested in giving this form of Grow Your Own a try!
Some of us may already have Greenhouses or have space where one could easily be erected.
Greenhouses or glass boxes of any size or kind aren’t a small or low-value purchase – so please be prepared for this if you are going to research further after reading this section.
Greenhouses of any size are a great way to Grow Your Own, because they can be used to provide an environment that can be managed to be consistently the same for longer periods throughout the year.
List of Grow Your Own Foods for a Greenhouse:
Asparagus
Aubergines
Bean Sprouts
Beets
Broccoli
Carrots
Celery
Cherries
Chillies
Cucumbers
Garlic
Grapes
Herbs
Kale
Lemons
Lettuce
Onions
Peppers
Radishes
Raspberries
Spinach
Squash
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Turnips
Like each of the sections covering ways to Grow Your Own, researching Greenhouses further will be a great idea before ruling the idea in or out – not least of all because of the wider range of Grow Your Own options and what could be year-round ability they offer to Grow different Foods.
Here are a few links to help, but please do take time for a wider online search if you can!
If you have access to a Garden or an Allotment, there is a large variety of Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs that can be grown – subject to seasonality and the amount of space you have available.
Like all of the different ways to Grow Your Own, researching the best options for you will be a great place to start and it may also be useful to search online to see what other people are growing on their Vegetable Patches, Allotments and in their Gardens in the area you live in – bearing in mind that the climate across the UK can vary!
List of Grow Your Own Foods for Allotments and Gardens:
Citizen Farmers – Working together with other members of Your Community to Grow Your Own
Whilst these pages on Grow Your Own are primarily intended to raise awareness for People who may be open to growing their own Food at home – whatever space and resources they might have available, there is a different, more community-orientated approach to Growing Your Own Food that is available to many of us too.
Where there are enough People ready to work together as a community or on behalf of the community they live in to grow and supply Food, there are different approaches that can be used to develop and manage the cultivation, growing and harvesting of all sorts of different Foods locally, working collaboratively, together with like-minded People, who live close by.
Whilst it may conjure up all sorts of different ideas and responses, putting the ideologies, agendas a bias that get in the way of us all having unfettered access to Food We Can Trust aside could easily lead to the age of the Citizen Farmer. Where everyone, young and old contributes to and plays a vital role in Local Food Production – recognising that even with U.K. Farming and Food Production infrastructure realigned, meeting our nutritional needs year-round and with Food being prioritised in the way that it should be, is likely to mean everyone playing their part.
People and Groups are already growing Food together, but an undercurrent in thinking still exists where whatever the stated aims and agendas might be, a big issue with ‘us vs them’ remains.
However, times are changing and changing quickly. The role of Citizen Farmer, whether it’s through Grow Your Own and then sharing, exchanging or bartering anything they don’t need, whole communities helping to grow fruit, vegetables and animals on shared farms or helping farmers to get their crops in, will be what True Citizen Farming is all about.
The options for Collaborative Food Growing that already exist include:
Community Gardens
Share Farming and/or Cooperative Farming
Community Gardens
Earlier in this topic, I mentioned what Minette Batters said about the inclusion of Allotments in future Housing Developments.
As you will probably guess, I agree with Minette and believe that this is a valuable suggestion. Not least of all because there are good and growing reasons to believe that whilst Growing Your Own may only be considered a hobby by many today, it could easily become a need for many of us, in no time at all.
Green spaces, green lungs and park areas are of course required to be considered in appropriately sized Developments already. And a time of emergency or prolonged Food Shortages, it would not be unreasonable to consider using some of these spaces – where appropriate – to begin growing Food.
Green spaces and parks, like homes and business premises have their own Planning Restrictions too, so at any other time, thinking about creating a community space or area for growing Food may need to consider areas of land that may not be immediately obvious, or perhaps even renting a field or some land from a local farmer that can be used in this way.
If you should find yourself amongst a group of local people or a community that has agreed that there is a need for such a space and there are enough people committed to the idea to make it work either through self-funding or by seeking some funding support, it will be worth getting in touch with your local Parish/Town and/or Borough/District Council to ask for their help and guidance.
In my experience of working with Council Officers of all kinds, it has always been far more productive to ask for that help and guidance before beginning. And it’s advantageous as it’s the quickest way to find out what you can and cannot do!
The big upside of speaking to the local Council(s) is that you may also be guided in the direction of other people and organisations that can help – and perhaps even be signposted to sources of funding and help for groups of people working together that you may not have thought of along the way.
At the very least, knowing what steps to avoid locally is good for everyone. It will save time, good will and perhaps even money too – and that has to be something that’s good for everyone!
Whilst the key aim of these pages on Grow Your Own are really about encouraging us as individuals to think about the opportunity to Grow Foods We Can Trust in our own homes or using the resources that we already have available, it will also be useful to think about and be open to the idea of working with other People in our communities to provide Foods We Can Trust, for everyone in the community.
Surprisingly, this isn’t just an idea for a rainy day (or when there are real problems with the Food Supply) and People, Groups and Communities are already working together to produce, share and sell a wide range of Foods to benefit their Groups and the Communities in which they operate.
Most shared farming or community farming projects that exist today are relatively small. They service or supplement the Food Needs of what we would probably agree are a small number of People who are usually members of a charity, cooperative or social enterprise that has been set up as a way to manage a project that benefits all those involved, mutually.
However, projects like this one are already learning invaluable lessons. They are helping to create the models for re-learning the practical skills, knowledge and understanding that are needed for a much more hands-on approach to Food Production that itself has the ability to create, contribute to and provide Food Security, built around Local Food Chains.
For those of you thinking more carefully about shared farming and community farming, it might be helpful to consider that the model of Farming most likely to work best for everyone will sit somewhere between groups of what we recognise as typical small commercial or family farms today and the community farming models that we can already see in action like this one in Stroud today.
When you consider all the different Foods and the quantities that can be produced across a range of farms, and then add local processing and retail (like abattoirs, butchery, milling, bakery, dairies, fishmongers, greengrocers) – which will quickly make a lot more sense in a time of Food Shortages, it is much easier to visualise how Local Food Chains can not only work, but will begin to restore Food and Food Production to being a central part of our communities and life.
Food: The heart of Communities of the Future
These pages on Grow Your Own have turned out to be much more extensive than I had expected when I began writing over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend.
I hope that by reaching this point and having had the opportunity to consider all of the options and aspects there are to Home Growing and Growing Food with the Community, you may have begun to see how Food and Food Production can bring People together, as well as Growing Our Own being a very important part of creating access for us all to Foods We Can Trust.
Whether we Grow Our Own at Home, or contribute to a Community effort in whatever form that might be, there is good reason to believe that even if not all of our Food is grown and brought to us this way, a significant amount of it will be, IF we really want to be sure that we are eating Foods We Can Trust, whilst also having an economic system that not only includes everyone, but is also balanced, fair and just for all.
If you would like to read more of my work on this important area of new thinking, please visit and take a look at my previous works which you will find on my Blog.
Cost
I am very mindful of the additional cost or ‘start-up’ costs for anyone who would like to Grow Food at Home with limited resources.
Like most things today, prices of any of the equipment required will always vary and it is always advisable to shop around.
However, the links of suppliers and organisations that are listed as we have covered the different methods to Grow Your Own and the Foods that you can grow too will certainly help with online searches for better prices – if the prices that some of them offer aren’t as competitive as they could be themselves.
I’m not kidding when I say that some of the people who could benefit most from Growing Their Own Food today are also those who simply don’t have the spare cash to invest in any of the things that they would need to continue alone.
For anyone experiencing that kind of difficulty, or for those who would prefer to work with others and perhaps get the social benefits of doing so, there is good reason to believe that looking for local gardening clubs or similar organisations could easily open up opportunities to collaborate, work together and pool existing resources, so that the initial outlay and costs associated with getting Your Home Growing started can be shared in different ways.
Online searches that use the name and location of the place that you live will always be a good place to begin. For example, search ‘gardening clubs in (place I live)’, or ‘gardening clubs near to where I live’.
Sharing Your Knowledge on Home Growing
With it being likely that many of us will need to embrace Growing Our Own Food, I am keen to link and collaborate with people, groups and organisations who are open to sharing their knowledge, experience, tips and stories that can help anyone who wants to consider Growing their Own Food using whatever resources they have or may be able to secure.
If you can share information, downloads or would perhaps like to record a tutorial or interview, please get in touch.
Thoughts on Grow Your Own
Writing this section of Foods We Can Trust has so far taken the longest time to complete.
Grow Your Own offers an opportunity for us all to reconnect with sustainable living and demonstrates that the opportunities to return to DIY living or to make an active contribution to ways of providing the things that are essential for us all to live are not something that can only happen out of sight, out of mind or behind the screen of some digital box.
Honestly, I was amazed by how much information, resources and advice is available for anyone thinking about Grow Your Own.
The list and variety of the Foods that we can grow at home, whether it’s in a container, grow bag, window box, greenhouse, garden, allotment or using hydroponics is simply staggering.
Yes, there are some very good reasons for as many of us as possible taking up Growing Our Own Food, but the benefits are much bigger than just adding a source of Food alone.
I hope that after reading through these pages, you will feel the same!
You don’t need to be a trained economist to know that the model of economics the world uses and the way economics is revered like work of the gods today is wrong.
In fact, it is probably better if you aren’t, and that you aren’t involved in economics, banking or corporate wealth creation either. As you are much more likely to be objective and untainted by ‘being in the tent’ in some way.
The misplaced ingenuity of the economic system and how it works has made it as complex as it is mind boggling. But that doesn’t give any surety or guarantee that how it works and what it achieves is in any way good.
For those actually thinking about why money is the common factor in everything across the world that is now going wrong, the complexity of the economic system is being exposed to light as the smokescreen that it is giving the hallucination of credibility to all the darkness and malevolence that has been so cleverly hidden within.
How can something so clever and complex not be real, is a question that many would employ as a riposte to counter the suggestion that there is absolutely no legitimacy to the FIAT monetary system, MMT, Free Markets, Globalisation and Neoliberal Orthodoxy that we have been subjected to for 5 decades or more.
But isn’t it the case that any good game that feels good to play is only good for those playing, because of the complexities and therefore levels for ‘the players’ that are involved?
How many carrots does it cost to buy a wheel?
To really understand why the world now has got the relationship with money so wrong – even though it was deliberately made this way by corrupt interests who have changed the laws so that their crimes have been legitimised and wiped clean – we really do need to stop for a moment, count to ten and think about what money is, or rather was really intended for.
In so far as the accepted narrative of human history goes, the whole pathway of our development has been progress that moved towards today in a linear fashion, stepping off from very primitive times when man couldn’t even speak, let alone farm for food.
The point here is not to argue whether or not any accepted version of the evolution of man is true. But to set the first picture back at a point when everything was considerably more simple. Long before more and more of those complex ideas or complexities became involved in how people trade.
Then, as now; different people did different things and produced different foods, goods and services to others as the direct result of whatever it was that they did.
For the purposes of this explanation, let’s assume that there are already fishers, farmers, growers, millers, bakers, saddlers, farriers, blacksmiths, cheese and butter makers, butchers, water carriers and pretty much someone or some small business providing all the different forms of foods, goods and services that we need to provide for life, from around a village green.
Some days a baker doesn’t want fish and a fisher certainly doesn’t want a saddle or leather goods daily. Even though they probably need something made to protect them against the elements from time to time.
However, everyone needs something regularly. Whether it’s for their own consumption, or it’s there to help them complete and provide output or goods from their own work.
Bartering and exchange, or swapping goods or even hours of work are of course a very straightforward and sensible way for two parties to make a transaction when one has something available that the other needs.
But the real benefit of bartering and exchange comes from being localised. And its weakness soon showed when the transactions were required to take place over distance, or for items – like that saddle or something equally special – which in day-to-day terms, are rather obscure.
Money, or coins of some kind used at first, created a transactional value, or to be more accurate, a medium of exchange.
The creation of a medium of exchange meant that one person’s goods or efforts could be exchanged for coins that could then be exchanged for whatever that person wanted themselves. All without there being any excessive delays or the need for a very complex or convoluted chain of different transactions to be involved.
The beauty of the system, at that point, was that the money in use could only relate to the agreed value of the transaction.
It would have been good for everyone, once the related practicalities involved were ironed out, if that system had continued without further ‘progress’. The relationship we all have with money could then have remained the same in relative terms – as that unit of exchange and nothing more.
Unfortunately for mankind, progress very quickly created wealth disparity or what we call wealth inequality today.
This imbalance was itself made progressively worse by the inter-generational transfer of property and wealth (and the power it buys) which has snowballed over time. Quite literally meaning that people can be advantaged or disadvantaged by birth, even before any one of the many other factors that skew life opportunities can come into view.
One of the most unfortunate elements of the human condition is the innate desire to always possess and accumulate more. For no better reason than the basic fear we all have of experiencing lack. With the rather perverse dimension that those who have more guard it more jealously than others, probably because they believe they have much more to lose.
The power and influence that money has given people who really weren’t fit to have the responsibility they had over the lives of others, has only got worse over time.
As industry and technology has improved and made it easier and easier to avoid genuine consideration for the consequences of their actions upon others, the human cost has become increasingly irrelevant, whenever the opportunity to make more profit was involved.
When promissory notes or what we know as cash came into being, a giant leap forward was taken towards the system that we have now, where the accepted wisdom is that the value of the money – or what we are agreeing to exchange as being representative of money – is being exchanged under a mutual understanding of trust, that is shared across society, and not just between the people where the specific transactions are involved.
Trust is of course belief. And as those with power and influence at the centre of the banking system realised that having currencies pinned or anchored to anything meant that they could only ever use or suggest they were able to use the money or sensible multiples of the money that they knew they either held, were owed or could earn within a certain time frame, they knew that they would have to create a new system that would release these chains. So that in terms of the money that they could create and use in the future, the only restraints would be dictated by them.
We should be under no illusion that this process of creating an economic system that could lead to limitless wealth and the control of everything for those who controlled it, wasn’t a plan that developed overnight.
The economic system that we have today was created and implemented over decades and carefully constructed so that it would make life much easier for the interests and in particular the politicians who needed to be bought. So that the useful idiots who gained power under the illusion of democracy would obligingly pave the way with system changes that have legitimised this otherwise criminal system at every step of the way therein.
When everything is about money, the answers to every question can only be found in monetary terms.
The money we have today and the way that it comes to and is taken from us – the economy – is the direct result and design of this massive, corrupt and inhuman game that the worlds wealthy, powerful and influential – the elites, decided to play.
The money we have in our pockets, bank accounts and have the ability to earn changes value quickly at the will or as a result of the actions of others.
Meanwhile, the direction of travel for the general population has always been that we are and always would become increasingly poor, as the value of the money which is typically what the poorest in society have only been able to hold, decreases faster than the rate at which our skills and experience develop or there is any chance to earn more so that we can keep up with or counteract the fall.
It was always intended to be this way. As those with wealth always knew that the real wealth was the control of assets and anything and everything that could then rented out to everyone. All as the world became increasingly poorer and their ability to grow control and rent out everything the money they created had bought them gave them even more.
It is ironic that billionaires now have so many zeros on their balance sheets. As everyone who has been a victim of what is probably mankind’s greatest con is now beginning to realise that they have been left with zero. Or if they are lucky, a diminishing amount of liquid capital that isn’t worth a lot more.
I would like to add at this stage that this essay is not an attack on any individual for whatever it is that they may believe they possess, control or have influence over today. Many of those with excessive wealth, power and influence today have just played along with the rules of a very clever game. One that has removed the balance, Justice and morality from every part of life and has done it so successfully that the poison it has replaced values with is embedded across cultures and normal life to the point that even the academics and leaders in finance and economics believe in the legitimacy and correctness of an entire system which is bewilderingly anti-human at its very core.
In simple terms
The simplicity of the mechanics of an economic system and more specifically a monetary system that revolves around private banks creating money from nothing – a process which is carefully hidden from view – so that government always looks like it is borrowing or rather selling bonds to private interests to finance everything, whilst those banks also lend money that doesn’t exist to us through loans, finance, credit cards and even pay day loans, really do make it horrendously difficult to accept that this is one massive confidence scam. Especially as everything is hidden in plain sight by little more than the disinterest that we typically have in anything that goes beyond having our perceived needs met.
However, let’s think about it as if we were reading a story about two friends at the start of their working lives; one with the motivation to work hard and deliver through their own industry, whilst the other has had life easy and just wants to find another easy way to get more, and we can then perhaps see how this gargantuan scam rolls out when exposed to light.
The diligent and easy living friends talk one day, looking at property that they would both like to own.
The diligent friend commits to working hard and earning the money to buy what they would like to own and leaves, promising to catch up when this outcome has been achieved.
Meanwhile, the easy living friend knows that he has the contacts and ideas necessary to go away and print enough of the money he needs to buy that same property today. And that he can do this from nothing, which will work out well for him but not his friend, so long as he doesn’t speak openly about what he’s doing. Uses his contacts to change a few rules so that what he’s doing is legal. And he doesn’t keep printing more money to buy everything else so that it becomes obvious what he’s been doing all along. Afterall, nobody will know if he uses the money he then earns from renting out that property to pay all that money back…
The money that the easy living friend has created, has just increased the amount of money that exists.
This means that because there isn’t actually any more property, production or anything else with ‘real’ value that corresponds to the increasing pool of money, all of the money that’s available is now worth much less than it was.
The real world impact of this fantasy being made reality is that the diligent friend will have to worker harder, longer or both, to pay for the property that the easy living friend has just taken without effort.
What is more, the easy living friend is now offering to rent the property he’s bought to the diligent friend who now realises that he may never be able to afford to buy it.
If you can see and understand the basic mechanics of how this situation works, you only need scale up the same principles to understand how the massive, growing amount of money – and the ridiculous inflation and the growing cost of living problem we are all facing, has been created and is now growing at a ridiculous rate.
It is an unavoidable, inescapable fact that if one person or set of people are able to buy real, tangible things that have value to us – whatever those things might be – with money that doesn’t actually exist, they can take lawful possession of those things and do with them whatever they so choose – as any legitimate owner would be able to do so.
However, the illegitimate creation of the money and the legitimised theft of assets, businesses, infrastructure and everything else imaginable that it has financed means what they have been doing is just one part of a multifaceted crime against everyone else.
The crimes that follow the created money pathways include the impoverishment of the masses.
Yet they become even worse when we consider that public services and infrastructure such as utility companies have been bought up with fake money.
Entire business sectors like the pub trade and small, local shops have also all become unviable because fake money has financed industry expansion of big retail and all their centralised supply chains, that would not otherwise have been possible.
To cap that all off, markets and the practices of big business and finance have been deregulated through the drive for ‘Free Markets’. So that those making money can make more and more, because the rules that once protected us all and small independent businesses have been removed, whilst regulations that cost us, exclude us and disqualify us from our own independence and from taking part have instead been imposed under the pretence that they help and protect us.
The whole pathway of illegitimate money creation using the FIAT system leads or rather has led to the doorstep of nothing less than worldwide system control.
The only thing that now gives us the opportunity to save ourselves from a very challenging fate is the reality that those with their hands in the till have already broken too many of the rules of their own game.
The whole system is starting to collapse before the great reset or imposition of the next new world order has conclusively been imposed.
The Future of Money
I could stop there. But in lifting the stone or exposing what lies beneath it to light I am certainly not alone.
Before continuing further, I would encourage anyone who has read this far to do their own research and use as many different sources and mediums as they can to uncover and draw their own conclusions about all of this and what is really going on.
My real interest and passion is what happens next for us and for our future. Once we have got through this horrid time and whatever turbulence and challenges that we now face, once we have got to the other side and left them all behind.
What we should perhaps all be able to conclude – once we have dealt with our own addictions and attachment to the way that endless money supposedly works for us all now – is that money should never hold its own value. Should never be speculated upon, and the power of its creation and policing should never be under private control.
What is more, the value of legal currency should never be pinned to anything that can itself vary in value, especially when whatever that currency is pinned to is in short supply or can be controlled manipulatively or otherwise at will.
People are the only legitimate economic constant
If everyone did what they do, only took what they need and were happy to share or exchange what they didn’t with whoever needed it in return for something they did in return, there would never be need of money of any kind, ever again.
Whilst I can see that to many the idea that everyone just does what they do today for nothing and that in return, they get just enough of what they need of everything else in return might seem fanciful, this suggestion does nonetheless make a very important point about everyone only taking or expecting to have access to what they actually need.
Need is NOT the same thing as want.
Too much want is what has led to a situation where there are people right across the world today who don’t have access just to the things that they need.
An economy – a legitimate economy – will function only to provide for the needs of people within it.
There isn’t an argument that can counter this legitimately. Any argument made against this, no matter how compelling or well elucidated, is inevitably built upon one person being able to obtain or accumulate more things than others. Because the alternative system favours their interests more.
These are the fundamental basics of greed.
Locality based economies and economics
Everyone who can, should play their part or contribute to the function of a legitimate economy, in whatever role they are able. So that everyone who is active, then comes together to become the sum of all the parts – with the sum of those parts being the community, which because of what members can do together collaboratively, will be greater than what everyone would be able to do by working alone.
The value of a legitimate economy should therefore be based upon the number of people who are active within it and include what they input or contribute to that economy individually and therefore collectively.
If every member of the community does what they should be doing, and the needs of everyone being met are always prioritised and planned for or budgeted for as they should be, the whole system will move closely towards self-containment, with the amount of money in circulation always being closely related to the number of heads within the population.
A localised and online local market exchange system that focuses on bartering and exchange for foods, goods, services and work being made universally available alongside cash and digitally transferable money, should also exist so that everything works in a circular fashion and everyone’s particular needs are always met in ways that favour everyone.
The needs for public service, infrastructure, community activities and everything beyond should be met by everyone who is able to work volunteering the equivalent of 1/10 of their working week and their skills or experience to the community. Thereby meeting whatever needs and community income generation requirement there may then be.
Excess goods produced, surplus service capacity and over production which is specialist to the community would also be traded with other communities and traded where any additional requirements beyond the scope of community production exist.
The blight of greed-driven thinking
The only reason that an economic system that will work like this, which promotes freedom and financial independence of the masses, would not work, is because those who would no longer be able to define themselves as being different to others through the accumulation of additional and unnecessary wealth will argue that it isn’t practical and cannot work.
Even within a genuinely egalitarian approach to economics based along these lines, it is a fact that some could always do better, because they choose to do so through their own industry. Whilst many others – and the majority at that, would be happy to just make the contribution that was absolutely necessary, knowing that they would be happy, healthy, safe and secure because all of their basic and essential needs were being met.
It is part of the capitalist myth that entrepreneurialism and creativity in commerce cannot exist when the ability to earn or rather profit is capped.
The real truth of the matter is that everyone will be productive and make a valuable contribution when anything that goes beyond what it takes to look after themselves and those who depend on them is a choice and the ability to just live a normal life without dependency on anything beyond themselves hasn’t been denied by the actions of others.
Nobody has the right to take or have more than they need and certainly not when it can only come to them through the exploitation and infliction of pain and suffering of any kind upon others.
Further Reading (Updated 14/1/26):
1. Breaking the Money Myth: Rethinking Value, Exchange and Equality
https://adamtugwell.blog/2025/11/12/breaking-the-money-myth-rethinking-value-exchange-and-equality/ Summary: Challenges conventional beliefs about money, exploring how value and exchange have been distorted by modern economic systems. This article lays the groundwork for understanding why current monetary practices are problematic and why rethinking these fundamentals is essential for a fairer society.
2. The Basic Living Standard Explained
https://adamtugwell.blog/2025/10/24/the-basic-living-standard-explained/ Summary: Explains the concept of a “basic living standard” – the minimum requirements for a dignified life. It discusses how economies should prioritise meeting everyone’s essential needs, and why this principle is central to building a legitimate, people-focused economy.
3. An Economy for the Common Good (Full Text)
https://adamtugwell.blog/2025/02/24/an-economy-for-the-common-good-full-text/ Summary: Presents a comprehensive vision for an economy designed to serve the common good, rather than private interests. It explores practical models and policies that could shift economic priorities toward collective wellbeing and sustainability.
4. The Role of Barter and Exchange in the Local Economy Governance System
Whilst so-called socialists and capitalists alike will continue to argue that their destination would have been different, until whoever is in power takes the rap for destroying everything at the time – and then the other tries desperately to convince everyone that there’s still time for them, just to be sure, the very perverse and somewhat disturbing truth that is now coming into our view of reality is that the direction of both left and right political thinking takes humanity to exactly the same place.
What all these ‘philosophies’ – the ideas of academics, thinkers, economists, industrialists, tech moguls, agitators, the aggrieved, life’s bitter victims, entitled shirkers, greedy and selfish bastards – have in common, is the centralisation of power into the hands of one or just a select few – who for whatever purpose intended – control everything, so that they can enjoy their own lives and positions more than anyone they see as different to themselves and therefore as being a threat.
Verging on enlightened thinking, as many will surely argue their heroes and inspirations to have written these works will have been, enlightenment doesn’t revolve around creating environments that centre purely on a beneficial vacancy at the top. Which the design of these solutions surely was the intention, resulting from whatever experiences the authors had themselves experienced up until the time of writing.
None of these accepted visionaries were wrong. Or at least they were not wrong in the sense that we all are the sum of our experiences and our position looking upon or perception of life in any given moment will be correct, for us personally, in terms of what those experiences have taught us and what we have therefore concluded that they should be, right up to that same moment in time.
Let’s face it. The world is a very shitty place to be. Whether you have nothing and cannot escape poverty because of the boot that rides rough-shod over you; or at the other extreme you are as financially wealthy as it is possible to be and all you quietly worry about is protecting yourself, your wealth and how you are going to accumulate even more.
The pain that hides behind our eyes hasn’t changed over decades and centuries in human time.
Yes, the surroundings, clothes, transport, technology and everything else may seem different. But the nature of the experiences we are all having on our different pathways are in relative terms very much the same.
Wherever we may sit across this spectrum, 200 or more years ago at the dawning of the Industrial Revolution or right now as we are being prepared for the AI takeover, we all have an idea of what the perfect world for us would be.
It is regrettable that only some of us find ourselves able to share those ideas and thoughts and have them taken seriously by enough others for them to be seen to matter – which itself doesn’t mean they are genuinely enlightened or of benefit to greater humankind.
It’s simply the case that even when complete idiots or utterly selfish bastards are heard, their thoughts and views are swallowed up like nectar by people who themselves have a back catalogue of difficult experiences that identify with what they read or hear.
They pick those ideas – those philosophies – up and run with them, no matter how twisted or damaging in the longer term they might be. Leaving ideas behind in the dirt that the chaos they unleash leaves behind to fester for years and possibly centuries, that would otherwise deliver for the good of everyone when implemented.
We must be clear that all the ideas and philosophies for the world, whether they fall under the socialist or capitalist umbrellas or not, are without fail just ideas and suggestions.
Whether well intended or not, these philosophies were all packaged with the pretense that they were the ingredients, nuts and bolts or technicalities of a model of the perfect working world, for all people.
As history has demonstrated only too well, the actions of those underneath these umbrellas lead to both the imprisonment and oppression of the masses under the yoke of world elites.
We are fooled into believing there is a difference in outcomes because one system gets straight to work by enforcing its ideologies on people and the systems of the world as it tightens its grip and pushes those who are left into the cage. Meanwhile, the other drugs everyone with every conceivable high that they believe they like, creating mass addiction to ways of living that mean there is little hope of sobriety for anyone who has bought in and become addicted, until the very heavy jail cell door will have already slammed shut behind us all.
Centralisation is the flaw in all of these philosophies. Because it is impossible to centralise every part of life, for every single person across every country and across the entire world, without life, values, happiness, health, wellbeing and all the mechanics of essential function and civic society collapsing in their wake.
The clever tools and devices used by capitalists, globalists and neoliberals are ultimately no different to the level-playing-fields, street revolutions and guns employed by communists and socialists to enforce and police their point.
The painful outcomes that these forms of idealistic thinking inflict upon the masses always have agendas behind them, and none of those paying the real cost of these ideological-turned-material crimes ever agreed to the world being run this way.
The elites and those behind all of this have of course been aided by technological advances and the many different ways that the world has opened up and the distances between us all have been bridged.
Yet the point has always and pretty much systematically been missed that humanity and our morality based values system do not need and never needed to change to keep up with the material changes in the world, which have always been about the things that appear to be important beyond and outside of people.
Indeed, the changes that have been made to our frameworks for behaviour have always been made to suit those in power, with influence and who are directly benefitting from those changes. Those who perceive that the only way they can benefit more is for the old ways or ways that benefit others with fairness and balance must be left behind. Because they will otherwise get in the way.
So, was there ever a point in history where humanity genuinely got the whole thing right?
There is good reason to believe not. Or that if that moment of genuine balance has ever existed so far, it was momentary and could only really have been so, because the opportunity didn’t actually then exist to end the self-interest, anger, frustration, greed and every other dark part of the human condition that drives generation after generation to ingeniously, creatively and ignorantly to exactly the same things over and over again.
We may not see it, nor appreciate nor even find value in the suggestion. But a centuries-long pathway of humanity being led and controlled by interests that are not in any way genuinely shared, has led us all to a place where those who have benefited from that control and the generations following behind them, can no longer maintain that control. Because the whole pathway is about to have gone too far, before that door can be slammed shut and the final adjustments to the oppressed fate of humankind can be made.
The intention underlying of all these ideologies was that everything and everyone would be controlled throughout the journey, until that control was necessary no more.
Yet the systems we have been conditioned into accepting, like the out of control value of money, the rules that are supposedly there to protect and help whilst they disadvantage us, and the process of making very intelligent people doubt themselves or force them to believe and support ideas which run contrary to common sense or that are completely untrue, have all contributed to a situation where many already know the world is out of balance. People know that whatever is behind all of this has gone too far.
Natural, universal, unspoken rules have always existed that require each and every one of us to have the freedom to learn, to grow and to develop if we so choose to do so.
Because of the persistent actions of these patriarchal few and those who have followed them, that freedom for everyone to learn grow and develop, no matter their background or position in life, no longer exists. Because the way the system of the world has been developed now means that many no longer have the opportunity to experience the personal sovereignty to which every man is entitled. No matter how, where or to whom they were born.
A collapse is coming. That collapse is already underway. We are all within it and experiencing it at subjective levels that keep us from the objectivity that would make it much easier to define.
The critical point that is now approaching will be the moment that something happens, that could be civil unrest, financial collapse, the extension of foreign wars, civil war or something else, when each and every one of us realises and accepts that we have a Choice. And that we no longer have to be passengers or passively accept whatever someone else has engineered to be our fate.
The curse of overcentralisation is the never-ending desire of those who are at the centre of that centralisation process to centralise even more. Simply because of the greater rewards and control that they believe it will bring.
The outcome of the overcentralisation is that nobody ever has enough of any of the things they really need. When in a world and time when we have so much available to everyone, this has become a first-hand tragedy for us all to experience indeed.
The only centre that we need and that we should ever seek is the community, locality and to share responsibility for everything amongst the people we see face to face and interact with each day.
This is real life that doesn’t come to us through media channels, digital technology or through rules that have been made by some name without a face.
This system is the only resource and ecosystem that we need to sustain us, that we need contribute to and that can be relied upon to create frameworks and governance for life that will always be in our best interests.
It is the only system that will provide and leave us with the genuine freedom necessary to enjoy every aspect of a good life, as the majority of us would want and like to experience.
The decision to make this change and embrace the power to do so is ours already, if we actually want it.
There is no need for hierarchies, for top-down systems and procedures, for political parties, financial markets and devices, globalised business and supply chains, or anything else that makes life cheaper. When life being cheapened any further is the very last thing that any of us need.
Local communities that are genuinely local and locality driven, and the ecosystems and self contained economies that they will create, offer us everything that we will need to have to experience valuable lives, where the basics and essentials are always in place.
Locality driven communities offer a system of governance meaning that no matter the life choices any one of us makes, we can all live independently of help – and therefore will not experience the forms of lack that are responsible for so many of societies social problems as their root cause.
The value of every one of us is exactly the same and nothing can change this.
No matter what we do, wear, what we have or how we are seen to be, not one of us should be positioned to advantage ourselves by disadvantaging others.
This is where the fundamental basis and genesis of a new world philosophy must be able to begin. One that is designed by us all for everyone rather than by a few who want everything controlled and for that control to be in the hands of one.
***
Over the past 3 years, I have been writing about the different aspects of what is happening; what is likely to happen and how we can all get from here to a much better place.
Whilst the rules and frameworks that govern a new world that will genuinely be of benefit to everyone, must be designed and agreed freely by us all, we still need an idea or vision of the outcomes that we can expect.
Our Local Future is a model for future life that I believe to capture this, which I would invite you to consider. Before someone else has considered and though out an alternative, that when the time has come to make the choice that is genuinely good for us, will instead steal that opportunity and take its place.
Whatever you do next, please remember to beware the many false prophets who are shouting the attractiveness of populism and anarchy now.
Don’t listen to those who tell you they are putting people first.
Keep watching for those who are doing so.
The only centre we need is within our communities themselves. Everything will make sense when everything important throughout our lives revolves around everything we can experience daily at first hand in this way.
It’s no great wonder that Foods We Can Trust are thought by many to be boring and bland, as well as being expensive and increasingly difficult to buy or access.
The alternatives often taste good. Always seem to be available whenever and wherever we want them, and in terms of the cost of everything we buy today, the most convenient Foods also appear to be the cheapest.
Ask anyone how many natural, locally or UK produced Foods they could find at a shop they regularly use to buy today, and the list will probably be short and at the same time confirm everything that I’ve just outlined above.
However, the number and variety of Foods We Can Trust that are available across the U.K. and that may be growing on a farm, in an orchard, in someone’s allotment, or perhaps are being docked at a fishing harbour near us today is much greater than many of us think.
We will talk about nutritional values, seasonality, production and other really useful things to know about how we make Foods We Can Trust available to everyone as a part of normal life in other posts.
But for now, becoming aware of and understanding the list basic Foods, or Foods that are either available or could become available to us that we can grow, farm, harvest or catch locally across the UK or around our coastline, is a very important place for us to begin.
A Work in Progress
The information that I am about to share is based on what I either know already, or what I have been able to research using sources such as those that I will link later on this page.
One of the reasons that I began Foods We Can Trust is that I hope to share information about Food Production that isn’t widely known or acknowledge about the Foods We Can Trust that are already widely available, or could be, if we decide to take a different approach.
As such, I hope that the following Tables will be updated and will in time be accompanied by posts, videos and resources that will come from other contributors.
If you notice any errors, glaring omissions or would like to add something yourself, please get in touch!
For now, the Foods We Can Farm, Catch, Harvest and Grow Locally in and around The UK will be broken down into the following groups, with a little detail to help with each:
Fruits
Vegetables
Crops
Livestock
Wild Livestock & Game
Natural Fish and Seafood Landed at UK Ports
Natural Fish that can be Line Caught from UK Rivers etc.
Dairy Products that can be made from UK produced Milk
Please note that the inclusion or exclusion of anything may not be deliberate and anything you are aware of may be added later.
Equally, inclusion is not making any statement upon the views and perspectives of any individual or group that believe certain foods should be included or excluded for ideological, religious or other reasons. This is about being practical and realistic about the food that we can grow, produce and that is otherwise available across the UK.
Table 1: Fruits that grow or can be grown in the UK
Table 2: Vegetables that grow or can be grown in the UK
Table 3: Crop Types that grow or can be grown in the UK
Table 6: Natural Fish and Seafood that is or can be landed at UK Fishing Ports
UK Landed Fish (Seafood)
AKA
Anglerfishes
Atlantic Cod
Atlantic Halibut
Atlantic Herring
Atlantic Horse Mackerel
Atlantic Mackerel
Ballan Wrasse
Black Seabream
Blonde Ray
Brill
Catsharks
Nursehounds
Clams
Common Cuttlefish
Common Dab
Common Edible Cockle
Common Octopus
Common Prawn
Common Shrimp
Common Sole
Cuckoo Ray
Cuttlefish
Bobtail Squid
Dogfishes and Hounds
Edible Crab
European Anchovy
European Conger
European Flat Oyster
European Flounder
European Hake
European Lobster
European Pilchard
Sardines
European Plaice
European Seabass
European Smelt
European Sprat
European Squid
Garfish
Gilthead Seabream
Great Atlantic Scallop
Green Crab
Grey Gurnard
Haddock
John Dory
Lemon Sole
Ling
Lumpfish
Lumpsucker
Manila Clam
Megrim
Megrims
Mullets
Norway Lobster
Pacific Cupped Oyster
Periwinkles
Pollack
Pouting
Bib
Queen Scallop
Rabbit Fish
Red Gurnard
Saithe
Coalfish
Sand Sole
Sandeels
Sandlances
Sea Trout
Shortfin Squids
Small-Eyed Ray
Small-Spotted Catshark
Smooth-Hound
Solen Razor Clams
Spinous Spider Crab
Spotted Ray
Starry Smooth-Hound
Thornback Ray
Tope Shark
Tub Gurnard
Turbot
Undulate Ray
Velvet Swimming Crab
Whelk
Whiting
Table 7: Natural Fish that is or can be line caught from UK Rivers and Watercourses
UK Fish (Wild/River)
Barbel
Bream
Chub
Common Bream
Common Carp
Crucian Carp
Dace
Grayling
Gudgeon
Perch
Pike
Roach
Rudd
Salmon
Silver Bream
Smelt
Tench
Trout
Please note that whilst links to information sources used to create this page are listed later under ‘Worth a Look’, I have added a link here to Gov.UK – Freshwater rod fishing rules, as there are clearly stipulated fishing allowances for anyone wishing to catch fish with a line from UK Rivers and Watercourses.
Table 8: Fish that is or can be Farmed in the UK
UK Farmed Fish (Aquaculture)
Atlantic Salmon
Lobsters
Mussels
Oysters
Rainbow Trout
Sea Bass
Table 9: Dairy Products that are or can be produced from UK Milk
UK Dairy Products
Butter
Cheese
Cream
Milk
Yoghurt
Worth a Look
I researched the content for the 9 tables listed above on 9 May 2025 using mostly Google Searches made from Cheltenham.
There are a number of very useful websites that will follow from where I sourced most of the information that I have pooled together to construct these Tables. There are others and these have been used because the information they offer is easy to use.
Please note that whilst there is every reason to believe the information linked below is both credible and from organisations considered the same, the inclusion of these links is neither an endorsement nor recommendation of the information these organisations provide. Their referencing here makes no suggestion of there being shared views or objectives, even if there are areas relevant to this page which are aligned.
Overview on ‘Foods We Can Farm, Catch, Harvest and Grow Locally in and around the UK’
The information contained on this page is likely to be one of the most important parts of the Foods We Can Trust initiative.
When we remove all the noise and all the agenda-led information available about what Foods and Ingredients can be brought in from Overseas; what can be manufactured or produced in factories, and why these are the Food Sources that we can and must rely on, the reality is that it is only the Foods and the Ingredients for Meals that come from them that we can grow, catch, harvest and create from these, that have the potential to be classed as genuine Foods We Can Trust.
As this work progresses, I expect to reference this topic frequently, especially as we begin to look at different aspects of UK Food Production more closely, and at Grow Your Own and Home Growing in particular.
I am very keen to add as much information as I can in these important subject areas and will be very pleased to hear from anyone who can add to what is already here in ways that will promote awareness and understanding of the information and processes that will help everyone to have access to Food We Can Trust.
Adam Tugwell 