The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) broadly welcomed the National Farmers’ Union’s Why Horticulture Matters campaign this week, but delivered a wider message: “Enjoy your fruit and vegetables in season, but let’s make it global”.
FPC chief executive Nigel Jenney told FPJ the industry should encourage the NFU’s initiative, but added: “We should not look to restrict the consumer’s choice and deprive the nation of some of its favourite fruit and vegetables, like bananas and citrus.”
Jenney called for more realism in the local sourcing debate. He labelled food miles - used by farmers as a positive reason to buy British - a “confusing, simplistic concept”, which “generates a false sense of eco-security”. Around 83 per cent of greenhouse gases are created in the production phase of food, with transportation representing only around 11 per cent of the lifecycle of greenhouse gases, he explained, quoting a recent report on food miles and food choices as saying “dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household’s food related climate footprint than ‘buying local’”.
The UK consumer should be offered a wide range of fresh produce, regardless of origin, Jenney said. “We should not be doing anything that limits choice in the face of the major health crisis of obesity. Perhaps we should encourage people to be ‘Eat in Colour’ vegetarians one day a week,” he added.
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