Food Security

A parliamentary select committee has been looking at food security and has come up with some surprising nay baffling conclusion. Primarily they have concluded that Britain should not and does not need to endeavour to grow the majority of its own food. The basis for this is that if Britain had a major crop failure we can just buy the commodity from another country either in Europe or from other parts of the world.

Now while this approach in general does work and has served the country well in the past, as part of this examination of food security was prompted by global shortages less than two years ago, the conclusion that we stay with the status quo is perplexing. So far three of the years this century, the effects of climate change has impacted yields on grain crops. Once via a heatwave and drought and twice by excessive rain fall and flooding. These were not just localised events that impacted one country, but the whole continent. In Europe the drought that reduced the wheat yield by forty percent was across the whole of Europe. Equally the in the US and Canada yields were down too.

Therefore this approach that we can just buy what we need presupposes that there will be stocks and yield available.

As happened eighteen months ago, nations will hold onto their stocks of grains and other foods to ensure their people are fed. History tells us that a hungry and desperate population can overthrow the leadership of a nation. And governments know this and will endeavour to retain scarce food resources in the country. Did our MPs not see the news reports about food riots across the globe?

I realise that no one can know for sure what or when the effects of a changing climate will be. Not to the extent that anyone can say that we have to do this or that, to alleviate the effects. But the effects that weather is having here in Britain and across Europe shows that we need to start shaping agriculture so that we are better able to cope should there be more crop failures or poor yields. So far we have not had sequential years where the weather has created poor yields year on year. But three poor years out of eight should have had the select committee sitting up and taking notice.

When the Potato famine occurred in Ireland, there was not a shortage of food. The poor in Ireland were reliant upon subsistence farming, they grew potatoes as it produced a good crop on a small piece of land. When blight destroyed the crop it was lack of money that caused people to starve to death. Simply they could not afford to buy the corn to make bread.

What the MPs are failing to understand is that lesson from history. There is the assumption that because we can now buy what we want now, we always will be able to. Add into the equalisation the power of the supermarkets. Since the start of the recession the major supermarkets have been deluding the public that they are engaged in a price war and are cutting prices to the public. Well they are not cutting their profits, nor is the food free. They would not give away the tons of food they throw away each and every day to the poor and hungry here.

This whole report has been influenced by what big business wants and not the wider needs of society. There will always be trade across borders, and in good times when you have a surplice that can benefit everyone. But the need for all nations to feed their population first has to be the centre of agricultural and food policies. If we leave it to the market, as we have done, then we have the situation where fifty percent of the food grown is thrown away, as happens now. And the poor gets offered, marketed and fed, the type of junk food that adds costs to the health system and has added to the obesity problem.

The effects of climate change are real and impacting the food system already. Not just weather effects, but health problems like Blue Tongue are directly related to the changing climate. The nation needs to grow more of its own food. This report by the select committee has totally failed to even understand the problems, so how can these MPs even think ahead to see the solutions.