For Professor Tim Lang, author of Feeding Britain, the Ukrainian war is a timely wake-up. “Britain has a disproportionate reliance on others to feed ourselves,” he says.
On a collective level, he would like to see farmers cutting grain-fed animal production and quadrupling vegetable production. “Why is 40 per cent of our grain being used to support intensive animal production in a totally unnecessary way?” he asks.
“I understand the cultural and economic significance of cattle, particularly in UK uplands,” he says, “but we need more horticulture. The UK only produces about 13 per cent of its fruit consumption and just over half its veg consumption. We need less agriculture and more horticulture.”
Lang isn’t advocating a return to a diet of turnips and cabbage, though. “We cannot grow mangos or bananas, but we could widen our production enormously, while at the same time massively increasing consumption for health. The brilliant Hodmedods brand (hodmedods.co.uk) has shown we can grow pulses in Britain. Why on earth aren’t we growing more?”
In 1939, the government’s Dig for Victory campaign called for every man and woman in Britain to keep an allotment. Lawns and flowerbeds were turned into vegetable gardens. More than 10m instructional leaflets were distributed to the British people, and it was estimated that 1,400,000 people had allotments (there are an estimated 330,000 now). People were encouraged to keep chickens. Others kept rabbits and goats. Pigs were especially popular as they could be fed on kitchen waste. We’re probably too squeamish to butcher our own animals, but a return to a better system of abattoirs could help individuals as well as larger-scale farming.
Lang is a keen gardener and advisor to BBC Gardeners’ World on sustainability, and is a firm believer that lawns are a waste of space where we could be growing veg.
“There are 22 million gardens in Britain and, in theory, nine million active gardeners. We need to start taking the joy of growing our own food, and the resilience and short supply chains it creates, seriously.”
If you want to grow your own, then it’s important to be realistic, says gardening writer Cinead McTernan, author of City Veg. “A container on the balcony isn’t going to make a difference, but having a few herbs is still worth doing and can make a difference to making a meal special. If you’ve got a sunny windowsill, grow your own chillies.”
If you’ve got a bit more space, you could do worse than courgettes. “I know they’re boring,” she adds, “but you end up with loads and they keep going.” Potatoes, which need lots of space, probably aren’t worth growing; although the news last Friday that prices are likely to rise by at least 30 per cent in the coming weeks may cause many to reconsider. For tomatoes, go for ‘baby’ over larger varieties, which may struggle to ripen. Look out for special offers on seeds – then check YouTube tutorials to achieve growing success.
With commercial fertilisers anticipating price hikes, start a compost corner to fertilise your soil with kitchen scraps. Find out if there are any vacant slots in local allotments, or if an owner wants to go halves on a plot (or give you cuttings).
