The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) has hit out at UK soft-fruit growers, suggesting that intensive, polytunnel-grown strawberries are not the answer to feeding the UK.
The commission published its recommendations to government for a sustainable food system in the UK, ahead of the expected announcement from the House of Commons’ Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee of its findings from an inquiry into securing UK food supplies up to 2050.
The SDC’s paper calls for a new definition of food security. SDC commissioner Professor Tim Lang said there was an endemic problem with the food industry’s structure: “In recent years, governments have relied on big food retailers to deliver low prices in the name of a ‘cheap food policy’. Rocketing food prices last year have shown how volatile this system is...
“Growing more of the strawberries we consume in the UK is fine, but strawberries grown without regard to the environment, in acres of plastic polytunnels, and too often picked by migrants working under less than desirable conditions, is not what we want more of.”
Lang told freshinfo a more considered approach was needed. He said: “Fruit and vegetable production in this country has been at a ridiculously low level for some time.
“Look at the land and energy use in Herefordshire - it’s a go-ahead-at-all-costs approach and we need to think things through. We have allowed other countries in the world to feed us up until now but, thinking about access, availability and affordability, we need to redefine our food supply chain.
“The SDC is clarifying the role of food production on our land but the government needs to take the lead, not consumers or the industry.”
The SDC suggests the food supply chain is a major source of greenhouse gases, pays little attention to soil quality and water intensity, and is responsible for one in four lorry trips on UK roads.
But Philip Hudson, chief horticulture adviser at the National Farmers’ Union, told freshinfo: “Although we agree with some of the SDC’s points - there is a cheap food culture, we need a resilient food system and home-grown production needs to be optimised - the inferences about labour conditions and emissions are unfair.
“The industry has taken great strides, and often not... been recognised for its work. Yes, it does rely on seasonal workers, but it is not in their interest to treat them poorly and there is no evidence they are.
“Lang wants to increase production, but polytunnels have been one of the main ways in which we have done this - it’s a disingenuous approach. We are not talking about acres and acres of land and people need to recognise that, while the countryside is for recreation, it is also a place of work. If we are to increase food production in the UK, it will be through good R&D and the funding of it,” added Hudson.
Laurence Olins, ceo of British Summer Fruits, said:
"Basically you can not have a UK which is self sufficient in soft fruit during the summer months without the use of polytunnels. No grower would entertain producing crops in our climate without this protection. The risk is too great and the reward potentially too small.
"Before polytunnels there was no industry, just an additional crop to farmers as part of their rotation. We need them and the government have accepted that. Without them there would be no continuity of supply and the supermarkets would buy from foreign importers instead. So the result is a compromise of sorts."
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