The Basic Living Standard: Freedom to Think, Freedom to Do, Freedom to Be with Personal Sovereignty that Brings Peace to All

The Illusion of Freedom

One of the biggest misunderstandings of the time and culture we live in is the way we understand, respond to, and relate to what freedom really is.

Many of us believe that we are free: that we can do what we want, think what we want, say what we want, and be what we want.

Yet we all live under rules that must be followed – rules which few would deny are becoming more intrusive, more prescriptive, and increasingly powerful in the consequences they impose if we fail to use our “freedom” in the way someone else has dictated it must be perceived and lived.

The Everyday Policing of Speech

Some reading this may respond with something like “Tell me something I don’t know.” And that would be fair enough, given the growing body of anecdotal evidence confirming that freedom of speech is not what it seems.

Almost everyone we might consider “ordinary” – those without an agenda, simply wishing to get on with their lives – now finds themselves policing their own relationships and interactions with the outside world.

Speaking truths rooted in common sense, or even in the way things have always been, increasingly risks offending those who demand the world operate according to their own design.

The Marginalisation of Independent Thought

Even reflecting on what is, at best, the marginalisation of independent thinking – and at worst, the steady criminalisation of individual thought – opens up a maze of debates.

These debates inflame questions about the role, scope, and power of groupthink, and how establishment narratives are not only shaping, but increasingly dictating blueprints for how everyone must live their lives.

Encroachment by the Establishment

To believe we are free in a world, country, and culture where the establishment seeks not merely to encroach but to manage every part of life is alarming enough.

Yet it becomes even more disturbing when we recognise that these restrictions and attacks on freedom are not created for the common good, but to benefit someone else.

The Role of Money as Gatekeeper to Life, Peace, Happiness and Freedom that is Governed by Someone and Something Else

Freedom Defined by Money, Not Ourselves

Yes, we are already in a fight for those freedoms outlined above.

The fight is increasingly hard because a division has already been created between what we believe freedom is, and what we believe we already know it to be – which itself isn’t what we are experiencing.

That we continually look outside of ourselves for validation should make sense, because when we think about the difference between what we imagine freedom to be – doing whatever we want – and what society actually allows us to do, shaped by those who create the narratives that control society, we quickly begin to see that there is a significant difference involved.

The Manipulation of Meaning

Creating circumstances where somebody can change the meaning of something so that a word comes to mean something very different from what we know it to be could never happen in an environment where people are confident in who they are, their communities, their culture, and what it ultimately means just to be themselves.

We have now reached the point where even the term common sense is being brought into question, sometimes considered offensive or demeaning.

This is because the fundamental basics of life – the value set that upholds the framework for a good life – have been replaced by a system that places money at the heart of everything.

Money at the Centre of Every Choice

Money has become so ingrained in every part of life that, without even questioning our motives, it dictates the decisions and choices we make.

Everything in life is based on what we can afford, earn, save, accumulate, or the cost and risk of cost.

Jobs are about what we earn now and in the future. Insurance is about betting against risk. Education is about securing a career that pays more than a working wage. The house we live in depends on the mortgage and deposit we can save or borrow. What we own depends on money already earned or borrowed. Holidays depend on savings or loans. Cars depend on leases or borrowing, unless bought outright.

Contracts Before Basic Essentials

It doesn’t matter who we are or what we earn. The world now requires us to sign up, subscribe, or rent services and products we once simply bought.

These arrangements are backed by contracts that must be paid before any income can be considered disposable.

Only food and basic essentials remain in the realm of pay-as-you-go – and even those are increasingly tied to credit cards, buy-now-pay-later schemes, or payday loans.

Judgement Through Wealth and Appearance

We judge people by their appearance, their property, their clothes, or their transport – signals of “who the world tells us they are.” And when we consider how much future earnings and financial security matter, even ordinary people outside the elites evaluate partners and marriage commitments based on what a potential partner can afford.

The Private Turmoil of Dependence

Few can see just how powerful, overwhelming, and controlling money has become.

Fewer still talk about it comprehensively.

Yet the reality is that what we do, what we have, how we are perceived, and whether we are accepted or rejected all revolves around money.

This leaves us in private turmoil and pain – what some might call or know as hell – because parts of life, or what is respected as life today, are cut off or restricted by money’s role.

The System’s Sick Success

This system is not natural. It has been deliberately created for the benefit of those who already have much more than they will ever need.

Its success lies in convincing the masses that freedom and status are directly proportional to wealth.

Meanwhile, the mechanics of the system ensure that resources flow away from those who have every right to them, leaving them dependent on credit and enslaved by debt.

In return, people have unwittingly surrendered property, ownership, and the peace of mind that comes only from self-sufficiency.

Fear as the Final Driver

Everything in life is driven by money – or more precisely, by the fear of not having it.

Everyone, at every level, makes decisions and behaves according to financial implications.

When people or businesses are pushed into dependence on external finance, even reason itself is abandoned. Questions of viability or self-sufficiency are ignored, as survival becomes the only priority.

When this mindset dominates, it doesn’t matter who someone is or what position they hold. They become vulnerable to the power and control of whoever influences what happens next.

This is the world we live in today. The plans, strategies, and changes overtaking life – many of which defy common sense – have taken hold because someone, somewhere, intended and created it to be this way.

This Is by Design

Where this all becomes difficult to accept is in recognising that nothing about the journey which has brought the world to this point is accidental.

It is by design.

The reason is simple: people who know they are free, cannot be controlled.

Freedom Cannot Be Controlled

If people cannot be controlled, they will not accept, take part in, or contribute to a system that is stripping away everything from them.

Everything that should, and always will, remain naturally theirs.

The Drive to Own and Control

Those who want more – who want to control more, own more, and take everything from everyone else – cannot succeed unless they first control people themselves.

They cannot take everything away unless they make the process appear legitimate.

Control must come first, because without it, the system suffocates and then collapses, under the weight of its own injustice.

Freedom Does Not Look Like This

Because most of us are not physically imprisoned and we face each day with choices that seem to be ours, many believe we are free and living free lives.

However, what we are experiencing – where we are coerced by narratives, advertising, groupthink, the media, and even the “free-minded” influencers we follow online to keep up – is not freedom at all.

Coercion Disguised as Choice

Beyond the natural requirement to meet the basic and essential needs of maintaining human life, anything that influences our behaviour or sets frameworks for “acceptable” choices is not freedom.

It is an infringement upon freedom.

At its most basic level, it is simply doing what we are told.

Money as the Measure of Freedom

Because of the way the money system has been designed, people believe they are free if they have enough money to do what they want or to buy what they think will meet their needs, as the system suggests them to be.

But money has become the value itself – rather than the work, the products, the property, the services, or the people involved.

We now believe we can only have anything, whether it is to meet needs or wants, if we have or can obtain the money to pay for it – and that these things are all the same.

Our freedom is dictated entirely by our relationship with money.

The Illusion of Value

If money were as real as we believe it to be, the value of the money in our pockets or the salary we earn would not reduce without us doing anything that changes anything.

Yet it does.

And the value of our money changes, because money is under someone else’s control.

The game, or rather the whole deck of life, is stacked in someone else’s favour.

The Mathematics of Decline

In the UK, inflation typically reduces the value of the £Pound by 2–3% each year.

This means prices rise, and your money buys less over time.

Inflation is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
If inflation is 3%, £100 today will buy only what £97 did a year ago.
The effect compounds: after 5 years at 3% inflation, £100 is worth about £85.87 in real terms.

Year	Real Value (£100 Start)
0	£100.00
1	£97.00
2	£94.09
3	£91.27
4	£88.53
5	£85.87

To keep up, your income must rise at least as fast as inflation. Otherwise, your purchasing power declines each year. And in truth, when we look more closely at the figures against what it costs to buy the things that we rally need, inflation seems to be putting those prices up a whole lot more.

Running to Stand Still (Revised)

Because inflation in the UK typically reduces the value of the £Pound by at least 2–3% each year, you must increase your income by at least this amount just to maintain your current standard of living.

The effect compounds: after five years at 3% inflation, £100 is worth only about £85.87 in real terms.

This means you are running uphill simply to stay in the same place.

Of course, this is assuming the official rate of inflation is accurate – if the real rate is higher, the decline in purchasing power is even greater.

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way – The Alternative Is The Basic Living Standard and an economy that puts People First

Because money sits at the heart of everything in life, very few of us can visualise a way of living that works differently. And as we’ve already discussed, you aren’t supposed to – because this is how you come to believe you are free, when in fact you have been enslaved.

Money as the Toolkit of Control

Money, in the way we use it today, is the toolkit of the greatest crime ever inflicted on humanity.

Its genius lies in the way it convinces people to participate in, and even further, the very crime being committed against themselves.

In this system, money is the only god. But it is not benevolent or caring.

It is unjust, unfair, and strikes no balance when it comes to equity, equality, or what is good for mankind.

Two Masters Cannot Be Served

Man cannot have two masters.

For as long as money and the money system remain the only god, people, community, the environment, and basic human values will never be what life is truly about.

The system is designed to keep us dependent, fearful, and compliant. Whilst it slowly takes or destroys everything that is genuinely important and of value to us all.

The Alternative: The Basic Living Standard

There is an alternative. And although it may sound radical to suggest that one rule changes everything, the truth is that a future awaits where real freedom is not only possible for some, but becomes the way of the world for all.

The Basic Living Standard (BLS) is that rule.

It guarantees that everyone’s essential needs – food, shelter, energy, water, clothing, healthcare, and the means to participate in society – are met.

It is not charity, welfare, or a handout. It is a universal right, paired with universal responsibility.

Real Freedom Through Self-Sustainability

By meeting everyone’s basic and essential needs, the BLS creates the foundation for self-sustainability and genuine freedom.

It dismantles the false god of money by ensuring that survival is no longer dependent on debt, wages, or exploitation.

This is the only way to achieve real freedom: freedom to think, freedom to do, freedom to be, and personal sovereignty that gives peace to all.

What Financial Freedom Is and What It Means

The simple difference between the world that is destroying us and the world we need is this principle: We should only take what we need to meet our basic and essential needs, and reject completely the idea that there is anything good in accumulation, control, or influence beyond that.

No person or organisation should have the right hold or control any more than they need for themselves or those they have direct and meaningful responsibility for.

Abundance

Natural abundance is the state of having our basic needs met and knowing they will continue to be met through our contribution and work – without interference or control from others.

Yet what we have come to believe abundance to be is wholly manufactured. It equates to accumulating, owning, and controlling as much as possible, regardless of the cost to others or to the environment.

When we recognise that true abundance is simply safety, security, health, happiness, and the basics that sustain them, we will also understand that these are the real foundations of inner peace. And peace is what abundance is really all about.

The Peace to Relax

Think carefully about how you feel when you no longer have to worry about what you will earn, borrow, or buy; how people will judge your clothes or job title; or anything else that creates fear of loss, anxiety about the future, or depression about what you think you may have already lost.

Yes, life has its own natural anxieties – relationships, health, and personal challenges.

But these are not manufactured to benefit someone else or a system that exploits us in every conceivable way.

When you have natural peace – because you are not in a constant race to keep up (while condemned to fall behind unless you add more than 3% value to your financial ‘worth’ each year) – if you are not already too far behind – you begin to see life through an entirely different lens.

Freedom to Think

When we have the freedom to think, we have the freedom to learn what life is really about.

We can be open to joys and pleasures that appear too simple or meaningless when we are trapped in pursuit of someone else’s agenda.

These joys hold value and meaning that help us grow into the human beings we truly are.

With this level of freedom, we see life’s mechanisms and systems in a healthier way.

Our expectations become simple. We develop patience with others and understand that we are not defined by what we have or earn, but by how we treat and respect others – even when there is no advantage to gain.

Freedom brings the ability to experience natural joy, not happiness sanctioned by someone else’s criteria.

It allows us to make and learn from mistakes, seeing them as value rather than cost – a perspective denied by the money-centric world.

Personal Sovereignty

Freedom on this level opens the door for us to be exactly who we are meant to be.

It facilitates personal sovereignty – the ability to make real, independent, and meaningful choices that affect only us, without fear of consequences from outside of ourselves.

This sovereignty exists beyond the participation and contribution required of us within the community to do our part, ensuring that everyone’s basic and essential needs are met.

It is the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility, and it is the essence of financial freedom.

The Framework for a People-Centred Life

The Basic Living Standard is the formulaic basis of the life we all need.

It guarantees that everyone has access to everything necessary to meet their basic and essential needs, in return for each person contributing through work and activity to ensure that every necessary process – and yes, every business – is completed so that everyone’s needs are met.

Businesses That Serve Needs, Not Greed

The entire system revolves around this formula.

Businesses and organisations exist only where a basic or essential need must be met.

They never grow beyond the size necessary to serve the community in which they are located and involved.

This ensures that the purpose of business is not accumulation or profit, but service to people and the environment.

Technology as Support, Not Replacement

In this system, people are supported and aided — but not replaced — by technology and AI. The need for human contribution remains central, because participation is not about money or profit. It is about people, community, and the environment around which our lives revolve, and the experiences we share together.

The Same Rules Must Apply to Everyone

For fairness, balance, and justice to exist, the same rules must apply to all.

Part of the human condition is the instinct to survive – an instinct that quickly evolves into selfishness.

It drives us to use any advantage, whether through opportunity or design, to take more, hold more, or obtain power over more than we actually need.

We often justify this behaviour by believing it makes us special compared to others, or by using it to visibly demonstrate superiority.

Survival Instinct vs. Shared Responsibility

Yes, it can be argued that this is how humanity naturally behaves.

But just because it appears to be the default response to fear of lack, it does not mean it is right.

When there is enough of everything for everyone, and when we have the knowledge and understanding to build and manage a world that works for all – as we now have, the pursuit of excess is neither natural nor justified.

The True Depth of the Basic Living Standard

In this sense, the Basic Living Standard is not just a benchmark or guarantee of dignity and financial independence.

It is also a framework that requires everyone and everything to function with its principles in mind.

Every process, system, and mechanism must flow from and to its implementation.

The BLS is not simply about meeting needs – it is about ensuring that the way society operates is aligned with fairness and responsibility.

No Special Rules, No Hierarchies, No Excerptions

There can be no special rules for anyone. No exceptions or hierarchies where some hold more power or influence than others. No materially based differences that allow one person to be perceived as fundamentally different from another.

Only when everyone and everything plays by these basic but essential rules, can the integrity of the system be assured.

Integrity Between Person, Community, and Environment

Ultimately, it is the integrity of the relationship between person, community, and environment that must be protected.

This integrity ensures that fairness is not just an ideal, but a lived reality – one that sustains balance and justice for all.

The Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS)

The Local Economy & Governance System offers the framework and societal structure that enables the Basic Living Standard to function.

It ensures that everyone can thrive and enjoy the freedom to think, to be, and to do – the personal sovereignty that guarantees peace for all.

A Human Economy

LEGS is a human economy.

Everyone who can, works or contributes, and contribution replaces currency as the foundation of exchange.

This means that the value of each person’s effort is measured not in money, but in the way it sustains people, community and the environment.

The End of Inequality

Most of the social issues we experience today are the effects of inequality – wealth inequality, social inequality, and the distortions created by a money-centric system.

In LEGS, these issues disappear. They no longer exist because the system is built on fairness and the natural law of cause and effect: when everyone contributes and takes fairly, everyone’s needs are met.

Businesses That Serve Communities

As described in the Basic Living Standard framework, businesses and organisations exist only to meet essential needs.

They remain the size necessary to serve their communities, never expanding into monopolies or profit-driven empires.

This ensures that resources are not hoarded, and that abundance is measured by access, not accumulation.

Technology as a Partner, Not a Master

Technology and AI support people but do not replace them.

The purpose of contribution is not profit, but participation.

Work is about sustaining life, community, and environment – not about chasing growth or accumulation.

In this way, LEGS ensures that human dignity and responsibility remain at the centre of society.

A System Built for People

The Basic Living Standard cannot work within the collapsing money-centric system that we have today.

It requires a new foundation – and LEGS provides that foundation.

By reorienting governance and economy around people, community, and environment, LEGS makes possible a society where freedom is real, sovereignty is respected, and peace is shared.

Benefits of the Basic Living Standard and LEGS

The benefits of the Basic Living Standard (BLS) and the Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS) are wide-ranging.

They work not only at the individual level, but also across communities and the environment.

Together, they create a framework where fairness, responsibility, and sustainability replace fear, inequality, and exploitation.

Reducing Crime

When everyone’s essential needs are guaranteed, desperation disappears.

Crime rooted in poverty, scarcity, or inequality declines because survival is no longer at stake.

Contentment and Peace of Mind

True abundance is not accumulation, but having enough.

By ensuring that everyone has what they need, BLS and LEGS foster contentment.

People are free to live without constant anxiety about money, status, or survival, creating peace of mind and stability across society.

Removing the Mental Health Crisis

Much of today’s mental health crisis is driven by insecurity, debt, and the relentless pressure to “keep up.”

With BLS, those pressures dissolve. Freedom to think, be, and do allows people to experience natural joy, rather than manufactured happiness tied to wealth or possessions.

Ending the Benefits Problem

The current welfare system is built on dependency and stigma.

BLS replaces this with a universal guarantee: everyone has what they need, and everyone contributes what they can.

This ends the cycle of benefits, bureaucracy, and inequality, creating dignity and independence for all.

Sustainable Living and the End of Overuse

Because businesses under LEGS exist only to meet essential needs, they never grow beyond the size and capacity required by the communities they serve.

This prevents monopolies, overproduction, and exploitation of resources.

Communities consume sustainably, and the environment is protected.

Work and Contribution as Valid Beyond Pay

Contribution replaces currency. Work is valued not by wages, but by its role in sustaining the community.

Whether paid or not, every contribution matters – from caring for others to maintaining essential services.

Valuing Every Kind of Work

In a system where survival is guaranteed, people see the value in every kind of work.

No job is “beneath” anyone, because all jobs contribute to sustaining life.

Happiness in Any Role

People become happy and content to do any kind of job, because work is no longer about survival or status.

It is about contribution, community, and purpose.

Experience as a Shared Tool

Life experience itself becomes valued as a tool for the benefit of all.

Wisdom, skills, and lessons learned are shared within communities, enriching collective wellbeing.

Care Rooted in Community

Care for those who may be too young, too old or unable to contribute for any other reason is carried out by members of the community who are best able, and who still receive what they need to meet their basic and essential needs.

This ensures that care is not commodified or dependent on profit, but is a natural part of community life.

A System That Benefits All

The benefits of BLS and LEGS extend beyond individuals.

They strengthen communities, restore dignity to work, protect the environment, and create peace of mind.

By removing scarcity, inequality, and fear, they build a society where freedom, sovereignty, and justice are not privileges, but universal realities.

Life Beyond Survival

Freedom Creates Time for Life

When freedom and personal sovereignty are real — when the compulsion to “keep up” is gone – something remarkable happens. Time and space open up.

Social activities, sports, and hobbies stop being luxuries or calculated uses of “spare” time that isn’t really spare at all. They become normal parts of everyday life.

The Basic Living Standard and LEGS make this possible by removing the constant pressure of survival and competition.

Instead of chasing money or status, people can invest their energy in pursuits that bring joy, health, and connection.

Communities thrive when individuals have the freedom to play, to create, and to participate in activities that enrich life rather than drain it.

Yet the greatest gift of this freedom is not only the chance to do more, but the chance to be more.

With peace of mind and comfort secured, people gain the space to think differently and expansively about who they are and what their existence really means.

Freed from fear and scarcity, we can explore our true selves, discover new perspectives, and embrace the human experience in full.

Rediscovering Real Relationships

Equally important is the refocusing and repurposing of face-to-face, in-person, real-life relationships.

In the money-centric system, digital interactions and transactional exchanges have all too often replaced genuine human connection. But under the Basic Living Standard, relationships regain their rightful place at the centre of life.

The priceless social skills and social learning that come from real-world interaction equip every person for a happy, healthy life.

They foster empathy, cooperation, and understanding – qualities that cannot be replicated by algorithms or screens.

When survival is guaranteed and competition is replaced by contribution, people are free to build communities rooted in trust and shared experience.

This is not just a benefit of the system; it is its very purpose.

Human beings are not data points or consumers. We are social creatures, and our wellbeing depends on the strength of our relationships.

Conclusion: A Future Built on Real Freedom

The journey through this essay has shown that what we call freedom today is little more than an illusion.

Rules, narratives, and the money system have combined to create a world where survival is dictated by fear, debt, and inequality.

Yet this system is not natural – it is by design, and it benefits only those who already have more than they will ever need.

The Basic Living Standard and the Local Economy & Governance System offer a different path.

Together, they dismantle the false god of money and replace it with a framework built on fairness, contribution, and sustainability.

They guarantee that everyone’s essential needs are met, that businesses serve communities rather than greed, and that technology supports rather than replaces people.

The benefits of this transformation are not limited to crime reduction, mental health, or dignity in work. They reach far wider – across personal wellbeing, community strength, and environmental sustainability.

They reshape how we understand abundance, how we value relationships, and how we live in balance with the world around us.

They restore the integrity of the relationship between person, community, and environment, ensuring that freedom is not just an individual experience but a shared reality.

Beyond these practical gains, BLS and LEGS deliver something even greater – the freedom to live fully.

Time for hobbies, sports, and social activities becomes normal, not a luxury. Real relationships are rediscovered, and the social skills that equip us for happy, healthy lives are restored.

This is not utopia. It is a practical, people‑centred system that aligns with the natural law of cause and effect: when everyone contributes, everyone’s needs are met.

It is a vision of a world where freedom is not defined by money, but by sovereignty; where justice is not a privilege, but a universal reality; and where peace is not manufactured, but lived.

The choice before us is simple. We can continue down the path of fear, inequality, and exploitation and the destruction of humanity that it guarantees. Or we can embrace the Basic Living Standard and LEGS, and build a future where freedom, fairness, and community are the foundations of life.

The Basic Living Standard and LEGS create a human economy, where balance, fairness, and justice underpin life. They place people before money, with priorities fixed upon community and environment. The BLS is the simple benchmark rule — the rule of all rules – upon which all systems of trade and commerce are aligned. By recognising abundance in its natural form, where everyone has enough to meet their needs but not their wants, the dynamics of life are transformed. Every need beyond the tangible can then be met, because peace, freedom, and personal sovereignty flow from financial independence. This is what allows each of us to enjoy and learn from the human experience in full.

Glossary of Key Terms

Basic Living Standard (BLS):
A universal framework that guarantees everyone’s essential needs—such as food, shelter, energy, water, clothing, healthcare, and the means to participate in society—are met. It is not charity or welfare, but a right paired with responsibility.

Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS):
A proposed societal structure that replaces currency with contribution, ensuring that the value of each person’s effort is measured by its impact on people, community, and environment. LEGS supports the BLS and aims to eliminate inequality and exploitation.

Personal Sovereignty:
The ability to make real, independent, and meaningful choices that affect only oneself, without fear of external consequences. It is the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility.

Contribution Economy:
An economic system where work and participation are valued by their role in sustaining the community, not by monetary reward. Contribution replaces currency as the foundation of exchange.

Universal Rights and Responsibilities:
The principle that everyone has the right to have their basic needs met, and the responsibility to contribute to the wellbeing of the community so that others’ needs are also met.

Abundance (Natural):
A state where basic needs are met and will continue to be met through contribution and work, without interference or control from others. True abundance is defined by safety, security, health, and happiness—not accumulation or control.

Money-Centric System (Moneyocracy):
A societal structure where money is at the heart of every decision, relationship, and opportunity, often leading to inequality, dependence, and loss of freedom.

Groupthink:
The tendency for collective narratives or establishment views to shape and dictate how individuals think and behave, often at the expense of independent thought and personal freedom.

Self-Sustainability:
The ability for individuals and communities to meet their own basic needs without reliance on debt, wages, or exploitation. It is a foundation for genuine freedom.

Universal Guarantee:
A commitment that everyone’s essential needs will be met, removing the stigma and dependency associated with traditional welfare systems.

Risk and Responsibility: Why Farmers Must Choose to Rebuild the UK Food System Before It’s Too Late

Introduction

The future of UK farming stands at a crossroads.

In recent years, mounting challenges have threatened not only the livelihoods of farmers but also the nation’s ability to control its own food supply.

As policies and industry practices increasingly sideline independent food production, farmers face a pivotal choice: continue operating within a system that undermines their independence, or take bold steps to reclaim control and rebuild the UK food chain from the ground up.

This article explores the urgent need for change, the systemic issues facing agriculture, and the powerful impact that farmers’ decisions will have on the future of food security, communities, and the environment.

Farmers’ Choice: Reclaiming Control of the UK Food Chain

Farmers in the UK face a critical decision: either take back control of the nation’s food chain now, or risk losing everything—including the freedom that comes from managing our own food supply.

Background

In the summer of 2023, I published The Glos Community Project, which later evolved into An Economy for the Common Good.

Originally written as a book, The Future is Local, this project explored localising the supply of essential goods and services when our current system collapses.

It offered a practical vision for local communities, emphasising business models that prioritise people, communities, and the environment over profit. The central idea was to shift away from money as the core value and put people first.

Food and food security have always been central themes since I wrote Levelling Level in 2022. Through examining food production within a localised, circular economy, I realised just how pivotal food is to our future.

Unfortunately, the UK food chain’s importance is being sidelined and overlooked today.

The State of UK Agricultural Academia

My focus on UK food security led me to postgraduate study at the Royal Agricultural University in late 2023, where my concerns about the establishment’s approach to agriculture were only amplified.

There are glaring contradictions in the current system – contradictions that academic institutions seem unwilling to address. This reluctance raises questions about the true purpose of agricultural academia if it won’t challenge the status quo.

However, this malaise isn’t unique to agriculture; it reflects a broader trend in UK higher education, which has shifted from providing world-class centres of learning to institutions focused primarily on turnover and getting every student they can through the door.

Challenges Facing Farmers

The experience at the RAU mirrors the state of UK farming today. There is widespread recognition that something is fundamentally wrong, yet calls for change are often muted and deferential to the establishment.

Many across the industry still believe that government, the public sector, and corporate players will prioritise the needs of small businesses and farmers. However, history shows that this is rarely the case.

While farmers, industry speakers, and advocacy groups continue to speak out, their efforts often amount to little more than noise. Many hope that politicians will eventually address the industry’s difficulties, or that a change in government will bring solutions.

But the reality is that UK food security is not being treated as a matter of common sense or urgency.

Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future

The Farm Inheritance Tax issue highlighted how every part of the UK food chain lacks the priorities that working family farmers and the public deserve.

The system is rigged against independent UK food production because the establishment resists any sector that could foster independence from the current system.

Sadly, instead of helping, advocacy organisations often reinforce the myth that government supports UK farming by prioritising the relationship they have with politicians and officials, even as policies make it increasingly difficult for independent producers to survive.

The reality is that no matter how they are presented, the changes are all designed to encourage the end independent food production in the UK.

Control over the food supply is power. Like other productive industries, UK farming has been systematically undermined under the guise of progress, innovation, and economic policy.

This process began with the adoption of the Neoliberal FIAT money system and the push for global business, and deliberately misled previous generations into believing that joining the Common Market and making increasing commitments to the EU methodologies would benefit everyone.

The Consequences of Inaction

For decades, we have been distracted by consumer culture and promises of continuous improvement, while key industries have been hollowed out.

This has allowed a small group of wealthy individuals and corporations to consolidate control over land, businesses, and resources, often through changes in rules and regulations that once existed to support people, communities and the environment.

While some may dismiss these concerns as conspiracy theories, the evidence is clear: the consequences of these actions have been real and damaging. Many still struggle to believe that such harm could be inflicted for the sake of control and profit.

The Reality Today

Food and our food supply are critically important, yet many fail to grasp this.

Some policymakers believe traditional farming is obsolete and that future food will be produced in factories, regardless of the health or freedom implications.

Reports on farming profitability are rarely taken seriously, as the industry’s problems are symptoms of long-term, deliberate changes.

Governments of all parties are invested in a collapsing system, unable or unwilling to enact meaningful change.

Their solution is now to tax everything in hopes of reviving that failing system, but this approach is unsustainable too.

The Choice for Farmers

Farmers now face a pivotal choice: continue operating within a system that works against them, or walk away from government and industry expectations.

By starting anew and rebuilding the UK food system from scratch, farmers can reclaim control and create a future that prioritizes people, communities, and the environment.

Key Points Summary

Urgency for Farmers: UK farmers must act now to reclaim control of the food chain, or risk losing their livelihoods and the nation’s food security.
Local, People-Focused Economy: We must shift from profit-driven business models to ones that prioritise people, communities, and the environment, as outlined in the newly published Local Economy & Governance System.
Systemic Issues in Agriculture: There are deep-rooted problems in UK agriculture and academia, with institutions reluctant to challenge the status quo, and a broader trend of prioritising financial gain over genuine learning and improvement.
Government and Industry Inaction: Despite widespread recognition of problems, calls for change are often muted. Many in the industry hope for government intervention, but history shows that politicians rarely prioritise farmers’ needs.
Control and Power: The UK food system is structured to prevent independent food production, consolidating control among a small group of powerful interests. Advocacy organisations often reinforce the myth of government support, even as policies undermine farmers.
Consequences of Policy: Decades of policy have hollowed out key industries, transferring land, resources, and businesses to wealthy corporations and individuals, leaving communities and the environment vulnerable.
Dismissal of Concerns: While some may dismiss these issues as conspiracy theories, most recognise that the negative impacts are real and significant.
Misguided Beliefs: Policymakers increasingly believe traditional farming is obsolete, favouring factory-produced food without considering health or freedom implications. Reports and studies on farming profitability and the problems the industry faces are rarely taken seriously.
System Collapse: The current system is unsustainable, and governments are unable or unwilling to enact meaningful change, resorting to increased taxation in a failing attempt to keep the system afloat.
A New Path Forward: Farmers are encouraged to reject the expectations of government and industry, and to rebuild the UK food system from scratch, prioritising independence, community, and sustainability.

Who controls Our Food controls Our Future (Full Text)

What is Food Security?

Farm Inheritance Tax was always about wrecking independent UK food production. That’s why it defies common sense

The real implications of the UKs Food Strategy 2025

FOOD FROM FARMS GUARANTEED | Full Text

The need for a collaborative approach to the UK Farming and Food Security Problem

The role of British Farmers has been neglected at our peril. Sadly, the politicians won’t see it until it’s too late, so it’s the Farmers who will have to begin the localised food supply chain revolution instead

An Economy for the Common Good | Full Text

The Local Economy & Governance System | Online Text

Farm Inheritance Tax was always about wrecking independent UK food production. That’s why it defies common sense

Watching the continuing bewilderment, frustration, fear and anger from so many across the UK farming community is not easy.

But the real difficulty for someone like me isn’t the wholly avoidable tragedies that are part of the much bigger engineered tragedy that is unfolding.

It is the reality that we cannot do a thing about what is happening, and why it is happening, until many more of us, and not least of all people from within farming and its related industries, begin to accept that what we are seeing, experiencing and increasingly becoming victims to, bears no relationship with our reasoned expectations of government and governance. But is instead being driven by a different set of truths that are very difficult to accept.

Whilst many within the farming industry may feel that you can only understand and relate to the turmoil that this one change in public policy has caused, if you are a farmer and have obvious skin in the game yourself, the action taken by the government and its failure to respond to months of concern, in any way which makes sense, is far from being isolated. Not least of all because the Tax that could be raised by the policy is in public spending terms trivial and was never what the change was really about.

Indeed, what appears to just be a nasty attack on ‘rich farmers’, was, is and will continue to be all about food and the independence that locally controlled food production gives us. It’s this that should be concerning us all more than anything.

It is vitally important for anyone who wants to address the real issues that UK food production faces to stop and look beyond the question of Farmers IHT itself.

To begin understanding how the bigger and deliberately complicated picture works, we all need to see how the IHT policy didn’t arrive in isolation. But was in fact just the next step in a long and calculated chain of policy changes and their implementation, which have been reforming, remodelling and slowly strangling, if not killing off all parts of UK food production for a period that now exceeds 50 years.

We should be under no illusion that the Farm Inheritance Tax Policy is part of a much bigger strategy and plan. One that places the end of independent farming and food production of all kinds across the UK at its very heart.

Likewise, we must recognise that food is power. And Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future.

So those who wish to have control over everything – including people and how we are allowed to live and behave – want to secure complete control of the food chain. Simply because of the absolute control that it will shortly allow them to impose, if the status quo continues, unopposed.

The last thing an establishment already struggling to hide its totalitarian and authoritarian plans for the future wants, is for anyone or any business to exist that can provide any person or any community with the independence that could very quickly derail and wreck everything they aim to do.

Whilst this malfeasant but cleverly legitimised strategy is being slowly but very surely implemented across every area of life today to restrict freedoms, including just about every rule that’s meant to create safety and switch to digital and online alternatives to ‘real life’ that there is, there are none that have quite the same level of potential impact on all of us as food and the supply of it.

Many of those farming smaller, ‘family sized farms’ or rather farm businesses that lie outside of corporate control, understandably perceive a specialised business landscape that cannot exist without subsidies, commercial contracts and the revival of the golden egg – which is a fair income from whatever they produce.

However, contrary to the accepted narrative that tells us ‘This is just how things work’ or this is where ‘progress’ has taken food production in the 21^st century, the truth that we all have to wrestle with a very serious paradox indeed, namely:

The only business sector that can genuinely provide UK Food Security, and with it the freshest, most nutritious, healthiest, most cost-effective food supply, that every person’s body across the UK needs at least twice daily is unable to provide the producers with a viable, unsupported or independent income.

Truly, the idea that growing the food that we genuinely need is not possible, can only begin to make sense when we accept that the whole problem has been created for farmers (and consumers), so that specific interests can be advantaged above others and that this was the deliberate choice of whoever has and is now controlling the levers of government.

Far from being the anachronism that many of today’s two-faced politicians would like voters to believe, small independent family farms are the future of food as a part of a great future for us and for our communities.

The relatively easy to solve problem for farmers and consumers that really is a very big concern of the establishment, is the threat that we will rediscover the legitimacy of food independence, whilst realising that we don’t need centralised power structures and business models to thrive and have much better life experiences on our own.

It’s this that the establishment really doesn’t like and is quietly terrified of.

All the rules that have slowly choked small farmers out of business, following policy change after policy change, heralded by Trojan horses like the Common Agricultural Policy, and bureaucratic initiatives that have cascaded down into practical business operations in ways that have made support industries like abattoirs unviable, through health, environmental and quality rules, have all been created with long term outcomes in mind.

Policy after policy has been created, changed and implemented that have at best been intended to redirect and at worst destroy businesses that could have and still could adapt to the needs that people genuinely have for food. Needs that could otherwise already be being fully met by functioning and supported UK food producers, rather than what is left of UK food producing industries being the victims of engineered circumstances that tell everyone they are unnecessary and are therefore done.

6365 farming businesses have closed in this past year alone and with suggestions made that over 100,000 were lost between 1990 and 2023, it was arguably inevitable that as wider plans for controlling the food supply and pushing public dependency towards sources such as factory made ‘alternative proteins’ became more important, that remaining independent food growing and producing businesses, still capable of changing direction to meet direct public need, should be encouraged to close.

Whilst even now, many reading this essay may well scoff at what I am sharing, I’m afraid that the evidence of all this is now beginning to shout very loudly as it emerges into public view at breakneck speed.

To be fair, it certainly defies the logic and expectations of so many of us, who have always believed that we could trust public representatives to actually do what’s best for us.

Dealing with this problem should be as simple as getting politicians to change their minds. Perhaps do a U-turn. Or even waiting until the next government comes in behind just the latest in a long line who everyone believes to be solely responsible for wrecking everything today.

But it’s not as simple as that in any kind of way.

Government and politics no longer work anything like we expect them to. Or in any way as they should.

With many of the politicians we can publicly identify being incapable of leading as they should and they themselves being wholly reliant upon the advice and direction of many other people and influencers who are both considered to be ‘experts’ (in what?!) and who we are unlikely to ever know of, we have to begin to understand that what and why the politicians we have are doing what they are doing may actually be for reasons that may be very different to what we expect.

Even then, if we knew what the politicians honestly believe, the genuine purpose or truth behind what they are being advised or directed to do may not even then be something that they themselves would easily believe.

Regrettably and rather worryingly, the establishment and any political party, group or movement that is aligned with the establishment, rather than the people and what remain of al independent businesses themselves, will not change the direction of travel of any of this, until they either succeed or their plans are stopped.

This means that to reshape and redirect UK food production, farmers, growers and fishers must themselves voluntarily step away from the reliance and expectation historically placed upon the establishment as well as those who wish to become part of it.

Food producers must take all steps necessary to develop a new, direct relationship with the public and therefore go it alone.

Regrettably, the alternative is to keep shouting whilst continuing to accept the status quo, whilst in effect sitting back and watching as UK food production and everything that still remains able to provide us with genuine freedom is destroyed, right up to the point that traditional, ‘natural’ farming and food growing practices no longer exist, and people will never be able to function independently and away from the control of the establishment ever again.

Who controls Our Food controls Our Future (Full Text)

The need for a collaborative approach to the UK Farming and Food Security Problem

FOOD FROM FARMS GUARANTEED | Full Text

What is Food Security?

Our Local Future | FULL TEXT

The Planned End of UK Food Production PDF_Vers2_15Aug25 Download

Grow Your Own or ‘Home Growing’

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.

Waking up to Our Food Supply Reality

A Report by the Countryside and Community Research Institute in May 2024 suggested that the amount of Food that comes to us direct from Farms is about 11% of what the UK Population needs to eat.

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.

And that’s before we think about cost, accessibility and all the things that Foods We Can Trust is about.

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, right now.

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.

Herbs that can be Grown at Home

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.

List of Grow Your Own Herbs in the UK:

Basil

Bay

Chamomile

Chervil

Chives

Coriander

Dill

Fennel

Horseradish

Lemon Balm

Lemongrass

Lovage

Marjoram

Mint

Oregano

Parsley

Rosemary

Sage

Savory

Sorrel

Tarragon

Thyme

Fruits that can be Grown at Home

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!

List of Grow Your Own Fruits in the UK:

Apples

Apricots

Blackberries

Blackcurrants

Blueberries

Cherries

Citrus

Damsons

Figs

Gages

Gooseberries

Grapes

Kiwi Fruit

Medlars

Melons

Mulberries

Nectarines

Olives

Peaches

Pears

Plums

Quinces

Raspberries

Redcurrants

Strawberries

White Currants

5 Of the Easiest Fruits and Veg to Grow in Your Home | Ecoscape

Top 10 Easy to Grow Fruit Trees & Plants | Thompson & Morgan

Animals that we can keep for Food at Home

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!

List of Grow Your Own Foods for Grow Bags:

Celery

Chillies

Courgettes

Herbs

Lettuce

Radishes

Rocket

Salad Leaves

Spinach

Spring Onions

Sweet Peppers

Tomatoes

Window Boxes

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:

List of Grow Your Own Foods for Window Boxes:

Baby Carrots
Basil
Beets
Bush Beans
Celery
Chamomile
Chives
Dwarf Peppers
Garlic
Green Onions
Lettuce
Microgreens
Oregano
Parsnips
Parsley
Patio Tomatoes
Radishes
Spinach

Containers

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!).

List of Grow Your Own Foods for Containers:

Beetroot

Broad Beans

Carrots

Chillies

Dwarf French Beans

Herbs

Peas

Potatoes

Radishes

Rocket

Runner Beans

Peppers

Salad Leaves

Salad Onions

Salad Turnips

Tomatoes

Hydroponics

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!

List of Grow Your Own Foods for Hydroponics:

Arugula

Basil

Butterhead

Collard Greens

Celery

Cilantro

Cucumbers

Fennel

Green and Red Oak

Kale

Mustard Greens

Oregano

Peppermint

Peppers

Rainbow Chard

Romaine

Rosemary

Snap Peas

Spinach

Strawberries

Thyme

Tomatoes

Greenhouses

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!

Allotments, Gardens and Vegetable Patches

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:

Beetroot

Broad Beans

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage

Calabrese

Carrots

Cauliflowers

Celeriac

Celery

Courgettes

French Beans

Garlic

Herbs

Leeks

Lettuce

Mangetout Peas

Melons

Mixed Salad Leaves

Onions

Parsnips

Peas

Potatoes (Not early varieties)

Pumpkins

Purple/White Sprouting Broccoli

Radishes

Rhubarb

Runner Beans

Salad Onions

Shallots

Soft Fruits

Squash

Swedes

Sweet Potatoes

Tomatoes

Turnips

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!

Share Farming and/or Cooperative Farming (Social Enterprise)

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.

If you research projects like this great one called Stroud Community Agriculture, based in Gloucestershire (UK), near to where I live, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that community farming isn’t scalable and that it is more like a shared version of hobby farming.

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!

Grow Your Own_PDF_Vers1_13Jun25 Download

The real implications of the UKs Food Strategy 2025

I have very mixed feelings about government strategies and reports.

Experience has proven that the real story usually lies hidden in how they say what they do say, what they actually say and why they say they’ve said it.

So, it’s only by carefully reading the political double speak, seeing what’s been missed or is merely present so it’s seen to be there, and then capturing what they really mean, that even people with real-life roles in the UK Food Chain have any chance of working out what’s really going on.

The use and misuse of There, Their and They’re perhaps offer a very quick analogical likeness of how different words, whole phrases and sentences that look and sound exactly the same are used by government to mean different things to us as opposed to what they mean to them.

Deliberately, with the intention to manipulatively mislead in ways that can later be used to suggest we were aware all along, relevant topics such as the intended use or application of technology are very carefully presented to us by those who supposedly serve the public, in the knowledge that anyone reading these carefully crafted messages, who isn’t pretty much fluent in the underlying language, will very quickly misread and therefore misunderstand the intentions, direction and desired outcomes.

The fact that a Food Strategy arrives on the Internet in polished form without anyone I or probably you would know from our daily lives and the communities around us having ever been asked or given the opportunity to genuinely engage, is a good indicator that what anyone on the receiving end of the policies in question thinks really doesn’t matter to whoever is driving their implementation.

When we begin to read about the consulting organisations and see that it appears at least some of them are newly created with the intent that they will do their bit at a time and place to be determined up ahead, we get a real feel for what the context of this policy direction instrument is likely to be. Given that food production is a subject that is deliberately played down politically – even though it should – as the intended backdrop of this document suggests – be a key issue of our time.

Rather than just provide a general commentary on the Food Strategy, for the purposes of this post, I have opted instead to pick out the points that are most important and then explain why they impact in that way.

Before anything else, you can read A UK Food Strategy For England HERE and I will be very happy for you to comment on what I’ve written or what you’ve taken away from this page or from the Food Strategy itself.

Direction and the Outcomes Sought

“Food is a big part of life in the United Kingdom. It gives us energy, brings us joy, and helps us feel connected to our communities.”

The Food Strategy opens with this statement. And to be fair, it really does sound like the point is nailed immediately.

However, it’s important to think about that opening line and what it says much more carefully. After all, these are the words or statement that most readers will pay attention to before they glaze over – which is often the plan.

This first line tells us much about the real direction of travel and what this Food Strategy is really about. And it’s not about all the different things that are carefully included throughout this and the adjoining documents that are linked in the way we are intended to think.

So before breaking it down, let’s be clear about the message that should be jumping out in the first blast of the Ministerial Foreword instead:

Food isn’t just a big part of life; Food IS life and without it, we simply don’t have one.

Food is so much more than something that gives us energy and joy – which are the only real issues that the establishment are focused on when it comes to keeping public opinion on side.

After all, in their minds, as long as the food we eat means we don’t experience hunger and we are all are happy after eating, that’s all they need worry about.

Food – and Foods We Can Trust require a different approach and values set entirely and none of this is that in any real sense at all.

In so far as talking about the links to communities and the mentions of the word community are concerned, the concept of community is very important when it comes to the future of our Food Supply and Food Security.

But the use of community in this Strategy is just for the purposes of making it sound like the establishment is aligned with where the priorities of food and food production should be. Which as discussed within my recent works ‘What is Food Security’ and ‘Our Local Future’ is very much about locality in every sense and not just a badge that suggests politicians and government officers are reliable and ‘on side’ – just because they’ve again used words that say what they believe we want to hear.

The Food System

“With the right leadership, we can become a world leader in sustainable healthy food production – tackling climate change, boosting resilience and securing our food future”

This statement really sums up the political position of the establishment and what might be best called the ‘accepted narrative’.

This statement is the collection of key phrases that relate to the priorities that the establishment has in mind when it is thinking about Food, and what they want it to mean to the public.

Once again, the statement sounds like its targeted in just the right way with talk of becoming a world leader in sustainable healthy food production.

But sustainable can mean many different things. And whilst the document refers to sustainable a number of times, the Food Strategy doesn’t directly talk about Sustainable Agriculture, growing or indeed any other forms of natural, farmed food production in the UK itself. And whilst even some farmers would currently disagree, it is only as part of a wholly Regenerative Farming or Traditional Farming approach being adopted throughout UK Farming will be the only way that genuine Sustainable Farming can be achieved in a way that makes the UK genuinely Food Secure.

Resilience is another word that at first glance makes it sound very much like this is a government that means what it says when it comes to our future experiences of Food. After all, who wouldn’t want us to have a resilient food supply?

The problem is that resilience said, and resilience done are two very different things.

As the influences at work on this Food Strategy such as the relationship with the EU come into play, the resilience that is being talked about assumes that resilience will always be based and assured upon the existence of the import and export dynamics that exist today. Yet in a very uncertain world, any good politician or government leader would be foolish to assume these will always remain in place.

The reality we face is that this supply chain could collapse at any time.

“We are committed to transforming the food system – making nutritious, locally grown British food more accessible and affordable for all”

I really like this statement. I would love for it to be true. But I don’t believe it for a second. Because these words simply do not correlate with the actions of the government that to date have been fully in view.

Most people reading these words will assume or take away the idea that the government and all the organisations supporting the Food Chain or Food Supply are going to gather or coalesce around a community-centric transformation of the existing system and do everything within their power to make this happen – in the best interests of all.

Unfortunately, it really doesn’t work that way and isn’t going to work that way with the massive range of profit and agenda led interests that already have very influential roles throughout the Food Chain and which I discussed in ‘Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future’.

The key thing that we all need to be clear about and accept – is that the transformation must be funded by private money, as this Food Strategy makes clear the government is committed to through the statement; “Government has an important role to play in supporting and creating the right environment for investment, but the majority of investment will come from the private sector’.

Whilst I’m sure that my views have annoyed many from the farming community for whom I have great respect, there is no question that if UK Food Production systems are going to be transformed and lead to an outcome where UK Agriculture, Growers and the UK Fishing Industry are restored to their rightful and appropriate place, it will be the Farmers, Growers and Fishers (and the industries that are aligned with them) themselves that will have to ‘privately fund’ this change.

That should make us all very happy. Because that’s where we need to be.

However, it’s certainly not where we are.

The majority of Farmers are still expecting that government will put up the money for any required changes – even though this statement makes explicit that the direction of travel will be funded by private interests.

If Farmers, Growers and Fishers aren’t the private interests that pay for and therefore own the direction of change, the private interests that dictate the future of our Food will be the big corporations, banks and financiers.

If big money interests fund the future of UK Farming (as there is much evidence to confirm they have already started) the vision of what Community Food Systems are and will become, will look very different to what anyone from todays UK Farming industry will believe they should be.

Its clear here, in black and white, in this Food Strategy who and what is really driving everything.

Farmers, Growers and Fishers still have the power to turn this all around and reject the inevitability with which this Food Strategy has been presented.

However, everyone within the Farming, Growing and Fishing communities that wants to save UK Food Production really does have to start collaborating; wake up to the reality that underpins the mood music and the subtext that is already at play, which is fast becoming direct messaging – all as the establishment concludes that these traditional industries no longer really matter and are so confident in what they are doing that they openly behave like they couldn’t care less.

‘Established in the early 20^th century’

As the Food Strategy develops, it begins to make statements that have an estranged relationship with the truth at best. Like this one that talks about the existing Food System being established in the early 20^th Century.

Be under no illusion; this is what the establishment want everyone to think.

The suggestion paints the picture that this Food Strategy is now being created and will be implemented to ‘save’ us from an antiquated and out of date way of ‘doing food’, which is no longer fit for purpose.

Yes, the Food System and Food Chain that we have today really isn’t fit for purpose. But it’s not fit for purpose because it doesn’t deliver Foods We Can Trust.

Today’s UK Food Chain certainly doesn’t prioritise human food consumption in the way that we should be able to expect government to prioritise something as important to human beings as the consumption of water and air.

The Food System in the UK – and across the world – is vastly different to what it was and what it was like a century ago – which to be clear would be a quarter into the 20^th Century in 1925.

World War II made a significant impact on food production in the UK. As up until the outbreak of war, a similar complacency had taken hold of the food question, and the Country was left dangerously exposed by the reliance that we then had on imports from around the world.

The Battle of the Atlantic and considerable effort made by the German Navy to sink merchant shipping supplying the UK on all approaching trade routes helped pressure the strategy for domestic food production back towards self-sufficiency and a productionist or output-orientated approach that was then supported heavily by government once the war had ended.

Whilst the UK really has no excuse to not be self sufficient in the supply of essential food supplies, the change in post war financial dynamics, following the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, soon meant that commercial priorities took over and the productionist or output-driven agenda was adopted both by business and the neoliberal orthodoxy which fed into the push for globalisation that really took over formally in 1971.

It was the obsession with output, aligned with what seemed like the unimportant transition of industrial processes that had been created and pushed towards arms production and then repurposed into fertilizer production that helped with the strategy to move away from traditional, sustainable and environmentally beneficial farming practices. Moving to easy fixes that certainly made all kinds of land seem highly profitable for a short time but then fell afoul of the EU (Common Market and Common Agricultural Policy) that heralded British Agriculture’s definitive decline upon arrival.

Farmers being re-educated to the point where they have forgotten to be creative and entrepreneurial and instead have become reliant upon subsidies and then the contracts that the removal of organisations like the Milk Marketing Board led Farmers becoming beholden to, have all contributed to the highly vulnerable situation that the industry faces across the UK today.

This deliberately engineered mess has led to a level of Food Insecurity in the UK that is critically dangerous, with around only 11% of the food we consume being immediately or directly available to the UK population today, if we were for any reason to experience a real crisis that shut down imports for any prolonged period of time.

It is the strategy and those behind it – including the big global and corporate businesses, that have dictated the way that the UK has been farming for at least the past half-century.

It is massively disingenuous of the government and the establishment to speak or make any policy moves that suggest the farming methods of a century ago are the same as they are now. And that the only way that the UK can have a sustainable, robust and secure Food Policy is to leave the natural-orientated, genuinely traditional forms of farming behind – whilst they are actually methods of producing Food that have not formed the real basis of the way British Agriculture has worked, for at least that amount of time.

‘As our largest agri food trade partner, how the EU approaches these challenges are particularly relevant’

The influence of the EU and the current governments push, not only to realign but to reintegrate Food Policy with them is massively troubling. Not least of all because every step taken is one backwards from a genuine democratic plebiscite where the majority of the UK voting population voted for the UK to leave the EU – which in reality, it never did anyway.

Ironically for all those who believe that the now crumbling EU was and always will be the very best place for the UK to be, the whole EU project is and always has been nothing less than a continental franchise of the globalisation project.

The political takeover of nation states and the creation of centralised world government is at its very heart, and this is regrettably best demonstrated by the close and beholden relationship that all those committed to the WEF (World Economic Forum) throughout politics have in turn with the EU.

These are all organisations that are historically shown to have been exceptionally good at buying support by appealing to the base instincts of voters. Meanwhile hiding deregulation that hands power to big business, and then regulating people and small independent businesses more and more by creating rules, regulations and systems that supposedly raise standards, encourage safety and promote high quality, but do in fact control, exclude and shut down independent businesses – particularly in all parts of the Food Chain, that when able to operate and function independently as and within localised ecosystems are a complete threat to centralised control.

Shortly after this statement, the Food Strategy suggests that the relationship will cut red tape, which is genuinely hilarious, bearing in mind that the red tape they are talking about being cut is only that which will be removed by the UK once again having those systems not just aligned with but under the control of the EU.

“The next key milestone will be the development of metrics, indicators and implementation plans for the food strategy outcomes.”

If the realities of this document already discussed were not concerning enough already, we then move on to the development of metrics (that’s measuring progress), indicators (so the things that show their plans are proving to be successful) and the implementation itself, which should probably be seen more as a rubber stamping of the latest actions, rather than anything that may or may not be left to chance in the future.

Yes, talk of something that has been called the Good Food Cycle sounds very good when taken at face value.

But we are in times when words and terms that politicians and government officials use are deliberately misleading (as we discussed earlier with There, their and They’re). And when this catchy term is put in its objective context, there is every chance that the Food we all end up with will not have anything within it that’s in any way good about it at all!

Ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels would of course be a truly fantastic outcome to have achieved. But only in relation to how things are working now and not in the context which this Strategy could all too easily mean.

Based upon the way government is now behaving, the way that this Food Strategy is written is almost certainly just another step in plans for every part of life that will lead to at least 2 tiers of society. A situation where the poorest, vulnerable and by then those engineered to be unemployed using the AI takeover will be fed in the same way with Foods that simply have no relationship with natural food production. Thereby complicating removing what’s left of the remaining but nonetheless real component of the majority of the Foods that are available to us at exploding prices now.

Alternative proteins

Alternative Proteins are mentioned at different points throughout the Food Strategy.

If you weren’t concerned enough already, this is where this already dark Food Strategy starts to go completely black. As Alternative Proteins is the accepted term for synthesised and artificially created foods, that this whole Strategy is laying the way for.

General Comment

My real concern about this Food Strategy is that so few who read it and consider how seemingly well put together it appears, will see the content and direction for what it all really is.

Legitimacy to this ‘work’ has been given by the participation and ‘contribution’ of advocacy organisations such as the NFU (National Farmers Union) who are providing exceptional membership services to the members who they face. But have not got any genuine ability to advocate through the fear they have of having the relationships with government and the public sector cancelled or burned.

The advocacy organisations pay lip service and certainly make much noise when it comes to the issues. But they fear being excluded from the process, much more than what the outcome of what that process actually will be.

Lines like ‘We need to restore pride in and build on our unique food heritage and cultures’ and then the reference to the production of Food being ‘Patriotic’ certainly play to the whims of the growing populist movement that is becoming a massive threat to both the government and the public sector, and of which the Starmer led government is massively afraid.

But they are in no way related to what this Strategy really is or is about.

Regrettably, the damage that could already have been done to what is left of the UKs ability to feed itself once more, by the time we have a new government actually capable of driving reversal, will have already gone too far and the chance of the UK becoming self-sufficient in food production and therefore Food Secure in the real sense will have been completely undone.

Links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-uk-government-food-strategy-for-england/a-uk-government-food-strategy-for-england-considering-the-wider-uk-food-system

What is Food Security?

Our Local Future | FULL TEXT

Who controls Our Food controls Our Future (Full Text)

The need for a collaborative approach to the UK Farming and Food Security Problem

FOOD FROM FARMS GUARANTEED | Full Text

FWCT Response to UK Gov Food Strategy 23Jul25 PDF_Vers2_11Nov25 Download

The Illusion of Freedom

The Role of Money as Gatekeeper to Life, Peace, Happiness and Freedom that is Governed by Someone and Something Else

This Is by Design

Freedom Does Not Look Like This

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way – The Alternative Is The Basic Living Standard and an economy that puts People First

What Financial Freedom Is and What It Means

The Same Rules Must Apply to Everyone

The Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS)

Benefits of the Basic Living Standard and LEGS

Life Beyond Survival

Conclusion: A Future Built on Real Freedom

Glossary of Key Terms

Further Reading:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

The need for us to contribute to Food Security

Waking up to Our Food Supply Reality

We will not have the luxury of time for the Food Chain to change, if we wait for Food Shortages before we begin

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Growing Your Own is the most trustworthy way to source Food

Grow Your Own Foods We Can Trust

Foods We Can Grow Ourselves

Vegetables that can be Grown at Home

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Herbs that can be Grown at Home

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Fruits that can be Grown at Home

Suggested further reading for this Section:

5 Of the Easiest Fruits and Veg to Grow in Your Home | Ecoscape

Top 10 Easy to Grow Fruit Trees & Plants | Thompson & Morgan

Animals that we can keep for Food at Home

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Methods for Growing Vegetables, Fruit and Herbs Ourselves

Grow Bags

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Window Boxes

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Containers

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Hydroponics

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Greenhouses

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Allotments, Gardens and Vegetable Patches

Suggested further reading for this Section:

Citizen Farmers – Working together with other members of Your Community to Grow Your Own

Community Gardens

Share Farming and/or Cooperative Farming (Social Enterprise)

Food: The heart of Communities of the Future

Cost

Sharing Your Knowledge on Home Growing

Thoughts on Grow Your Own

Share this:

Direction and the Outcomes Sought

The Food System

General Comment

Links:

Share this: