Britain no longer growing it's own food

[Eldorado]

"British cities have lost 65 per cent of allotment land since the mid-twentieth century, a new study claims.

"Historic maps of 10 urban locations including Bristol, Glasgow and Liverpool showed lost allotment land in each could have grown around 2,500 tonnes of food per year.

"The poorer urban areas in particular have seen eight times more allotment closures than the wealthiest areas.

"A lack of allotment space means cities are more dependent on importing fruit and veg from abroad, which leads to food security risks."

Full article at the UK Mail: Link

[freetoroam]

Some of us knew this.

Some of us knew that property developers were concreting over our land.

Some of us knew councils were conctreting over our land.

Some of us knew land owners were selling off land.

Some of us knew people were making money out of immigration by concreting over our land to build more houses.

Some of us knew and no one gave a damn because money came first. 

 

[freetoroam]

Now we are in the subject of land

Quote

Ecosystems permanently damaged. Irreplaceable habitats destroyed. Taxpayer's money spent on restoration wasted. Wildlife extinctions at a local level. This could be nature’s fate if the current plans for HS2 continue. 

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/hs2

After this virus we need to reconsider how much travelling this little island can cope with.

We already have too many people, too many imports and too much destruction.

We need to start being more self sufficient and stop relying on imports from countries when we could be growing the products or making equipment ourselves. 

[RoofGardener]

I think you'll find that allotments close down because people weren't using them ? Since WW2, the uptake has mostly been from middle-class or lower-middle-class households. The "poor" seem to prefer watching Love Island on their 60" flatscreen TV's.  

[Susanc241]

We do still grow lots of our own food, the sort of food I grew up on in the fifties.  Potatoes, parsnips, carrots, swede, runner beans cabbage and so on, plus wheat and barley.  It is the fancy non indigenous stuff that gets hauled air miles that so many younger people have got used to and expect and say they can’t do without and have no idea about seasons re produce.  Our back garden, when I was a child (100 ft long typical Victorian style) had - rhubarb, apple, plum and cherry and pear trees; gooseberries, raspberries, loganberries, strawberries; lettuce, onions, runner beans, cabbage, potatoes, peas, beetroot, radishes and tomatoes.  That’s all I can remember anyway.  My grandfather maintained all this singlehandedly.  Even on the days we didn’t have meat, we always had a good plate of fresh veg.  So many modern gardens now are not big enough for this sort of production, and for those that are people want flowers and grass to kick a ball about on.  My own garden is too small for more than a bit of mint, a potted apple tree and a few other herbs grown in containers.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Susanc241

[SHaYap]

Hugh tried to roll the idea years ago, very few cared... 

Quote

Residents will have the chance to meet the Knowle West farmers when Bramble Farm opens its gates to the public on the weekend of 8 and 9 July.

 

The community farm on the Northern Slopes started nine years ago – when TV chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall helped six local families set up a small-holding on disused land. This was featured in the River Cottage TV programme.

 

The farm is run as a collective and lets the public have a peek at its work on certain days of the year.

• LINK

 

~

[L.A.T.1961]

I would say a bigger change to domestic food production is smaller gardens in new builds. Many houses built more recently have very little outside space for kids to play, grow fruit and veg or do anything else.  

[L.A.T.1961]

The amount of land built on for housing, roads, airports, quarries etc in UK is actually quite small. 

"More than half of the UK land area  is farmland (fields, orchards etc), just over a third might be termed natural or semi-natural (moors, heathland, natural grassland etc), a little under 6% is built on and 2.5% is green urban (parks, gardens, golf courses, sports pitches etc). 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41901294

[freetoroam]

4 hours ago, Susanc241 said:

We do still grow lots of our own food, the sort of food I grew up on in the fifties.  Potatoes, parsnips, carrots, swede, runner beans cabbage and so on, plus wheat and barley.  It is the fancy non indigenous stuff that gets hauled air miles that so many younger people have got used to and expect and say they can’t do without and have no idea about seasons re produce.  Our back garden, when I was a child (100 ft long typical Victorian style) had - rhubarb, apple, plum and cherry and pear trees; gooseberries, raspberries, loganberries, strawberries; lettuce, onions, runner beans, cabbage, potatoes, peas, beetroot, radishes and tomatoes.  That’s all I can remember anyway.  My grandfather maintained all this singlehandedly.  Even on the days we didn’t have meat, we always had a good plate of fresh veg.  So many modern gardens now are not big enough for this sort of production, and for those that are people want flowers and grass to kick a ball about on.  My own garden is too small for more than a bit of mint, a potted apple tree and a few other herbs grown in containers.

Most youngsters have never tasted a proper tomato. The tomatoes in the supermarkets are inedible to me, thats because I know what a proper tomato is.

The potatoes imported do not last. 

We get fruit which they say ripen at home and instead of ripening they go bad.