The Future of Local Food and Farming
02 April 2009
The discussion will be on the Future of Local Food and Farming. Doors open at 7pm, the debate starts at 7.30pm. If this is a subject which interests you then please come along.
When we go to our shops and supermarkets we see food in abundance. Naturally then, it is something we can tend to take for granted. However, food security is increasingly becoming a prominent issue in local, national and global politics.
Rising populations and changing diets mean that one of the greatest challenges ahead will be how the world feeds itself. On current trends global agricultural production will struggle to keep up with rising demand. This will make us more exposed to global food crises. For example, last year Australia experienced its worst drought in over a century, cutting the wheat harvest by 60%, causing wheat prices to rise here.
Looking at this from a more local perspective, the Labour Government’s willingness to increasingly rely on imports has hit our agricultural economy hard. Our self sufficiency has fall from 82% in 1997 to 74% today in terms of the value of food bought. More disturbingly, less than half the volume of the food we consume originates from the UK.
We need to address this alarming rise in reliance on overseas markets and value agriculture properly in our economy. We should put the focus back on optimising our domestic production and see how the UK can contribute to world food security and ensure our capacity to produce our own food is sustainable.
I do not propose a dangerous turn to trade protectionism which could effectively close the global market for our local producers but we must move away from the Government’s equally dangerous reliance on the global food market to cover our most basic food needs.
The Conservatives are tackling these issues head on and we will be ready to do whatever is necessary to avert a looming food crisis which would be inevitable under current policies.
In these tough economic times I believe we can work together to avoid a food crisis and, in doing so, support our farmers and other local producers who are so much a part of the culture and life here in this part of Gloucestershire.
