Oh I see. Thanks for explaining. (I confess I hadn't actually read the scan - I glanced at it and decided the font was too small for me to cope.)
A lot of work is being done in Britain at the moment about snapping that bottleneck. The strategies focus on means of permitting direct supply between farmers and consumers. So things like farmer's markets, farm shops, vegetable box schemes, small local co-operatives etc. And also organisations like the Countryside Alliance do a lot of work promoting local foods and retailers who concentrate on local suppliers, as well as alternative agriculture products such as game or local alternatives to foodstuffs that would otherwise have to be imported and which are frequently those requiring the heaviest use of agrochemicals (promoting rape seed oil instead of corn oil is a good example). Most of this is bottom up inspired - driven by the commercial needs of the farmers - but a real sea change has begun to occur, and several of the major supermarkets are now trying to push local produce as well because they are feeling top down pressure from the consumers as well.
But it is one of the (numerous) things that worries me about the current economic climate - a lot of people are already starting to cut back on the costlier foodstuffs, and that normally means local food grown to high environmental and welfare standards.
From the other side of course, there will always be a market for uniform, cheap produce, so work is being done to try to grow more of that locally. A friend of mine is a farm manager for one of the large vegetable suppliers on the South coast, and they are experimenting with all sorts of crops that ten years ago would never have been considered. New crop protection and raising techniques, along with new breeds, mean all sorts of things are now possible.
no subject
A lot of work is being done in Britain at the moment about snapping that bottleneck. The strategies focus on means of permitting direct supply between farmers and consumers. So things like farmer's markets, farm shops, vegetable box schemes, small local co-operatives etc. And also organisations like the Countryside Alliance do a lot of work promoting local foods and retailers who concentrate on local suppliers, as well as alternative agriculture products such as game or local alternatives to foodstuffs that would otherwise have to be imported and which are frequently those requiring the heaviest use of agrochemicals (promoting rape seed oil instead of corn oil is a good example). Most of this is bottom up inspired - driven by the commercial needs of the farmers - but a real sea change has begun to occur, and several of the major supermarkets are now trying to push local produce as well because they are feeling top down pressure from the consumers as well.
But it is one of the (numerous) things that worries me about the current economic climate - a lot of people are already starting to cut back on the costlier foodstuffs, and that normally means local food grown to high environmental and welfare standards.
From the other side of course, there will always be a market for uniform, cheap produce, so work is being done to try to grow more of that locally. A friend of mine is a farm manager for one of the large vegetable suppliers on the South coast, and they are experimenting with all sorts of crops that ten years ago would never have been considered. New crop protection and raising techniques, along with new breeds, mean all sorts of things are now possible.