Food Security

PowerSwitchJames · Post by **PowerSwitchJames** » 26 Apr 2006, 09:10

New organisation, funded by farmers I am told, seems to have cropped up with adverts in the Metro and The Independent. No website yet, but the advert seems to be a quarter page, with a large picture of a ripped out newspaper piece with the hedline ?Queuing for food again?? and a row of people in suits queueing. They?re all white, so I began assuming it was the BNP.

The text below is as follows:

=======================

?A crisis like war, oil shortage or some unforeseen disaster could mean that suddenly there would not be enough food for the 60 million British people. Did you know 40% of our food is imported? As a county, our self sufficiency is rapidly declining?

?Our food trade deficit is at least ?13billion. Despite this, it has been stated publicly that ?national food self-sufficiency is not need or desirable.?

FOOD SHORT, YOU?RE CAUGHT

For further information call our Food Security Infoline ? 0800 1388570

=============================

And so I called them and asked them who was behind this, and the man said farmers. I asked if any political organisation is behind it, he said no. I said it seems like a BNP kind of advert (positioned as it was next to an advert for the elections), and he said it wasn?t. I asked for my details to be passed on to speak to the people behind this so I hope to hear back today tomorrow. A website is currently in the works but they?re sending out info packs at the moment. The man said it is a long-term campaign but details aren?t entirely clear.

I am curious about this. An interesting development.

isenhand · Post by **isenhand** » 26 Apr 2006, 09:19

Interesting indeed. As far as I remember the UK is self-sufficient in basic food stocks (corn, potatoes etc.) although it does export a lot of the basics and then it import the same stuff! The thing that it is not self-sufficient in is more luxury items. So if the UK was to lose all its imports there would be a major chocolate crises but the UK would still be ok for chips so long as it stopped exporting the spuds.

However, I'm doing this from the top of my head from what I remember of the EU stats on this. I will try to check it tonight if I have time or tomorrow. Unless someone else has access to the stats?

skeptik · Post by **skeptik** » 26 Apr 2006, 10:21

isenhand wrote: So if the UK was to lose all its imports there would be a major chocolate crises but the UK would still be ok for chips

That might have to be baked or boiled. Don't think the UK is self sufficient in cooking oils. Most maize grown in the UK is for silage, I think, and I dont even know if you can cook with Rape seed oil.

isenhand · Post by **isenhand** » 27 Apr 2006, 06:39

OK here we go:

% of self-surfficiency in certain agricultral products:

weat 102%
Rye 62%
Barley 121%
Grain/maize 0%
rice 0%

Potatoes 87%

Sugar 56%
Fresh milk 96%
whole milk powder 106%
skimmed milk powder 123%
concentrated milk 97%
cheese 66%
butter 76%

beef 57%
pigmeat 51%
poultrymeat 90%
sheep/goat meat 85%

oil of land animals 90%

No figures for veg oil, fresh veg nor fruit.

OK, not as good as I remembered it. However, this is not full capacity so ignoring PO for a min I don't think the UK is heading for starvation just yet.

Source: Table 3.8.3 "Self-surfficiency in certain agricultral products" (dated 7 Dec 2004). "Agriculture in the European Union - Statistical and economic information 2004". DG Agriculture and Rural Development. pages 206-7. 2005. ISBN 92-894-9348-8.

Post by **clv101** » 27 Apr 2006, 06:42

skeptik wrote:...and I dont even know if you can cook with Rape seed oil.

Isn't 'vegetable oil' actually rape seed oil?

skeptik · Post by **skeptik** » 27 Apr 2006, 10:08

clv101 wrote:
skeptik wrote:...and I dont even know if you can cook with Rape seed oil.
Isn't 'vegetable oil' actually rape seed oil?

Probably is on reflection. WOuld explain why we grow so much of the stuff!! Im not very aware of thse things as Ive been using the same brand of Spanish olive oil for everything since the late 80's.

Without looking anything up I just had it in my head that the 2 most commonly used cooking oils are Sunflower oil and ' 'Corn' i.e Maize oil - we seem to be stuck with the american usage due to the brand 'Mazola Corn Oil' longtime brand leader http://www.mazola.com/productsCorn.asp

Billhook · Post by **Billhook** » 27 Apr 2006, 12:13

Given that the rate of global climatic destabilization has continued to increase exponentially since the 1960s,

and given that Europe has now endured both 500-yr floods and a 500-yr heatwave in the first 5 years of this century,

and given that this trend continues with scarcely any public discussion of the requisite remedy of a Treaty of the Atmospheric Commons,
even on supposedly radical websites like PowerSwitch,

and given that the nation is largely bereft of the physical stamina, subtle skills, equipment, livestock, farm-worker housing and small mixed farms,
that will be needed to try to counter both adverse weather effects and the escalation of farm fuels and fertilizers' costs,

I'm not at all surprised that it is farmers,
who know how totally dependent crop yields are on each year's weather,
who are now warning that this country is on course for starvation.

I first heard this warning from farmers 35 years ago, and have heard it repeatedly from farmers over the years.
The only change is that it has now become supremely urgent, and that someone's put up the cost of some press adverts for uninformed townies to read.

God knows who. Could well be just a scam by a commercial -buy-British- lobby. Or it could be something more than that.

regards,

Bill

skeptik · Post by **skeptik** » 27 Apr 2006, 12:24

Billhook wrote:
I first heard this warning from farmers 35 years ago, and have heard it repeatedly from farmers over the years.

Phew! Well that's all right then. Thought we were in trouble for a minute there. Farmers just doing a 'Colin Campbell' again.

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 27 Apr 2006, 12:35

The only change is that it has now become supremely urgent, and that someone's put up the cost of some press adverts for uninformed townies to read.

Let's hope it succeeds in scaring the uninformed townies into growing their own food . . .

Cuba managed the transition to the cities becoming self-sufficient in food, but then they can grow food all year round in that part of the world. Winter could end up being a very lean time in the UK. Coupled with lack of heating due to power cuts (gas boilers generally have electronic ignition), and the UK population could end up suffering winters in the same way as most of the vegetation in the UK does - 'die off' I think is a commonly used phrase.

supposedly radical websites like PowerSwitch

I must admit, I can't find the word 'radical' anywhere on the PowerSwitch portal to describe the site. Topsy turvy days when common sense becomes radical!

It's all relative, I suppose. Using horses to pull carriages never used to be radical; neither did using the wind to mill grain and the like.

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 27 Apr 2006, 17:04

I called the freephone number yesterday, and registered for an information pack.

To my surprise, someone from this "Food Security" organisation has just called me back - a lady, who was very interested as to why I had 'phoned. She probably saw the local authority address I had left.

We spoke for ages, and guess what - she said that the main reason this group of farmers have come together to raise awareness of this issue is because they are all worried about . . . PEAK OIL. She was absolutely explicit about it, asked me if I had heard about it!

This is it, guys! Get planting the frost-hardy cabbages!!!

Post by **clv101** » 27 Apr 2006, 18:24

Well the lady I just spoke to didn't seem to know anything - it sounded like she was just reading of a script and when I pressed her on why it was a problem to be importing food she said it wasn't as good quality as what we can produce...

"It's a quality issue then?" I say.
"Urm, that's all the information I have, everything's explained in the pack" she replied.

I don't think she's read the information pack!

Jane · Post by **Jane** » 27 Apr 2006, 21:49

There was the same ad for dairy farming decline in the Guardian last week, same phone number, info, etc "Milk Short You're Caught"! I'm waiting on my pack!

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 28 Apr 2006, 08:20

Well the lady I just spoke to didn't seem to know anything - it sounded like she was just reading of a script and when I pressed her on why it was a problem to be importing food she said it wasn't as good quality as what we can produce...

I was completely taken by surprise by the lady who called me back - I got the impression she was writing out envelopes for the information packs, and had seen my address, which is the sustainable development department of a local Council.

At first, she seemed to be checking that the address was correct, but then asked me why I was interested. I said to her that food security was relevant to sustainable development, and that we encourage people to grow their own food to reduce 'food miles' and carbon emissions. Then I said to her that the advert had mentioned a possible oil crisis, and asked her how soon she thought there might be problems.

She asked me if I had heard of peak oil, and I said yes. She then said that many "of us" (I presume she meant farmers) thought that we are already past the peak, and that every farmer she knew was worried about what might happen. I joked that maybe the ad would scare people into growing their own food, and she said yes, absolutely - in an extremely earnest and non-humourous way.

She said that they had been trying to get the Government to listen to them for a long time, but that no-one in power seemed to want to hear about it, which is why they had decided to run the advertisement and appeal directly to people.

It was a bit sobering to be honest - it's one thing to chat about this stuff in theory on this noticeboard etc, but to come face-to-face with the issue speaking to someone who is quite obviously very agitated about it, completely independently, was a bit of a shock actually!

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 02 May 2006, 15:49

Got my information pack. Some interesting excerpts:-

As to the very real and increasing risk of oil shortages: would there be fuel for boats and planes to transport food into the country? Would there be fuel for lorries to transport fuel within the country? Would there be fuel for farm machinery used for producing UK food?

Self-sufficiency in food has fallen from 74% to 60% in 10 years

Hill farming is on the brink of a rapid and unmanaged collapse (National Trust report)

Post by **mikepepler** » 30 May 2006, 16:26

Just found the raw data for UK self-sufficiency in food, while researching the NFU for my MSc project. Same result that Andy has reported above, but if you'd like to see the raw data, here it is: http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/publ ... art6-4.xls

Doesn't look like like a very good trend in the graph they include...

Mike