Defra minister David Miliband has leapt to the defence of strawberry growers in the wake of recent allegations against their production methods.
Miliband, the UK’s first official sanctioned ministerial blogger, refrained from naming and shaming the Conservative party’s Bill Wiggin in his blog but the reference was clear.
In an entry entitled “Celebrating the strawberry”, he wrote: “I am not allowed to be political in my blog but I think I can say that a Member of Parliament has complained about a particular method of growing strawberries in the UK and as Minister responsible for Agriculture and Horticulture I want to celebrate the strawberry growers of the UK.
“Fruit growers in the UK have made huge progress in recent years in breaking into the soft fruit supply chain for the supermarkets, previously dominated by southern Europe. If our strawberry producers were not growing all year round then imported fruit would fill the gap and with that would come the added food miles and consequent environmental damage.”
Miliband’s statement was welcomed by two interested parties whose responses have been pasted alongside the original entry.
Anthony Snell, grower and chairman of the West Midlands NFU horticulture board said:
“Thank you for your encouraging support! The sun is shining, and the flavour this year of this season's crop of strawberries is exceptional. A British farming success story!”
The second respondee, Paul Cotterill, called for a renewed emphasis on locality.
“The next challenge is to localise the supply chain related to such horticultural production so that all the bits that end up with strawberries etc on shop shelves end up being done in the same neck of the woods, thereby reducing food miles by a bigger factor,” he said.
“I live in the horticulture paradise of west Lancashire so I should know.”
No comments yet