Adam Henson
A view from the farm
Think of self-sufficiency and most of us imagine the classic BBC comedy The Good Life or Ben Fogle and co on the series Castaway.
But if you talk to any farmer, it is clear that self-sufficiency – the UK’s ability to produce enough homegrown food to sustain us and keep us secure – is at the heart of everything we do.
How much food do we grow, rear or manufacture ourselves, and how much do we need to import to keep the nation fed?
This issue has been brought into sharp focus since the UK left the European Union. But there’s nothing new about the subject at all. Two hundred years ago, political careers were made and destroyed in the wrangle over the Corn Laws: the high tariffs and trade restrictions imposed on imported grain to protect British landowners and farmers from cheap foreign cereal.
Then, in the 20th century, wartime food rationing was introduced to safeguard domestic supplies and distribute them fairly, at a time when the war at sea meant foreign imports were few and far between. Virtually everything was rationed to avoid shortages and for some people, the early 1940s seemed to be an endless round of high-street queues. As the historian Professor Jean Seaton said: “At the end of the Second World War, we end up really irritated about food but never healthier.”
Eighty years on, how much food we have and where it comes from remain questions of huge importance. I was interested to hear Minette Batters speak passionately about it in a recent radio interview to mark the end of her presidency of the National Farmers’ Union. She made a compelling case for the UK to produce more of the goods we excel at, such as beef, lamb and dairy, as well as fruit and veg. She also said that while we’re now about 60% self-sufficient in food, that’s a long way off the near 80% figure achieved in 1984.
That said, while the idea of the UK becoming 100% self-sufficient might be technically possible, it would be difficult, impractical
