Food? Yeah, where is it?

Most of my friends and acquaintances are panicking about food supplies. The local supermarkets have curtailed allowances of certain greens and fruit. I am scratching my head because I must be frank – I haven’t seen anything! Perhaps I do not panic quickly but my local supermarket just has a few lettuces on view a but plenty of prepacked tomatoes! At this time I do not really eat lettuce anyway but I can see the point. Spain has had a few problems growing lettuce. However, why have we arrived in this situation? I have thought and said, we are not growing enough of the food we need in this country ourselves. I used to drive back from Birmingham where most of my customers were, back to South Wales via the fruit growing area of Herefordshire. Great views as well! Malvern Hills, Ledbury and more. But there were always billions of plums for sales, apples and pears galore but today, all virtually gone! The orchards deleted like a software program. I suppose it is not much different with vegetables. You may ask – Why? Well, I think there are two things, first of all the government doesn’t care a hoot and that is not strange as they don’t care a hoot about anything. They all believe it is cheaper to import. Secondly, the nation’s growers do not receive any support whatsoever. In fact it is the reverse. Taxation and operating costs are sky-high. Planning laws mostly stops farmers from providing up-to-date buildings because you know, in this country we rather see dilapidated farms because it reminds us of the glorious past when we were an Empire. You might well ask – how were we in the industrial areas during the empiric days? Well, plenty of data here, just Google the ‘Victorian Age’ and see how well the workers were treated. It’s all just gobblydygook. As a result we do grow very little in this country. Yes, there are some tomato growers in Norfolk and you might be able to buy some cucumbers, potatoes are also available but already going out of stock. The governments lax attitude to all this is worrying viewing climate change. As we already hear complaints by farmers about the very dry months after Christmas, it does not augur well if this summer will be excessively dry! If we have what we had last summer prices in the autumn will be sky-high! Climate change is here, there is no longer any doubt. It might get much worse. I noticed when it rains the raindrops are twice the size and the amount of rain that falls quickly overcomes the drains. The roads in our town flood quickly because of not cleaning the sewers and too much rubbish left by ‘caring’ people. Our river at the back is very busy eroding its banks which I had never seen before. The river can rise by feet in a matter of minutes! So, there you have it, a problem facing us all, climate and food. Now just hope the government will wake up and stop guzzling the champagne.