It doesn’t make sense.

Couldn’t agree more.

I agree too. We certainly have our own tomatoes here and meat and other foods and veg so why import it? The occasional import is fine eg bananas but do we really need so much imported?

Cynics time here - could it be that food grown in Britain uses our land for that purpose - when some people (eg our Government) would much prefer to just build/build/build on it all?

I have read about British farmers going out of business while the big supermarkets buy apples, broccoli and other fruit and vegetables which can be grown in the UK from abroad.

I bought some mange touts the other day and found they had been grown in Botswana.

I buy an organic veg box from Riverford each week. Almost always choosing the 'grown in the UK' option.

Someone on MN recommended the new documentary by film maker, Adam Curtis. It's called Shifty, a set of five programmes on Iplayer.
It's about what went wrong with Britain in the 20th century, we watched the first one last night. It would answer a lot of the questions above.

I do try to buy mostly U.K. grown, in season, fruit and veg. Obviously there are exceptions - citrus fruits and bananas - but I will only ever buy e.g. U.K. grown strawberries. The season is much longer than it used to be though.

And I go to specific shops (usually M&S) for U.K. apples when unable to get them elsewhere, ditto mushrooms. I never buy e.g. ‘baby sweetcorn’ - often imported from Thailand - can never see the point of that anyway!

I've never understood this

We use village butcher and greengrocer, mostly sourced locally.
Costs a bit more but taste is so much better.

Also buy raw organic milk from nearby farm ( I know not everyone agrees that's a good idea)

I grow as much as I can myself but I still need to buy fruit and vegetables sometimes. I often end up buying from the nearest shop. One year I lost most of my tomatoes to blight and ended up buying tomatoes that were grown in lots of different countries.

My BiL grows a lot of vegetables and salads. He was approached by a large supermarket to sell to them. He refused as supermarkets can suddenly stop the order and he'd be left with a lot of produce. He sells to local businesses around his area and has his own shop. It not as bad if one shop stops their order.
He's noticed the supermarkets buy from abroad so maybe local growers find them untrustworthy.

I live in an area that grows lots of fruit and veg, farmers find it very difficult to recruit pickers and lots of the crops require hand picking. Many of our local farmers seem to have to rely on foreign labout. I'm currently picking mange tout, tayberries and raspberries from the garden, they're all tedious to pick so I can understand why it's cheaper to fly them in from countries where labour is cheaper.

Was going to buy some strawberries in Tesco this morning, but saw they were grown in the Netherlands, so I didn’t.

I bought some at a greengrocer’s last week, I said, ‘are they local?’ He said ‘Hmm, not really, Scotland’ .

That was ok with me.

I think it’s modern expectations, plus supply and demand. People are used to and (some) want strawberries and asparagus at Christmas - from overseas.
Supermarkets are in a cut-throat business - I think buying in limited quantities of home grown produce might boost sales temporarily, but those supplies would soon be exhausted and people would then just flock to alternative supermarkets to buy - from abroad and quite possibly cheaper?
Remember, our weather is quite unpredictable and a whole seasons crop can be lost to a late frost or torrential downpour.
I do, however, think it’s a shame farmers can’t be encouraged to grow more - our local PYO is now just left aside - the landowner says he gets more money doing that, with none of the hassle that went with the PYO.

* I know ‘set aside’was abolished, but it’s still a term used when land previously used to produce crops, is left for other purposes.

Farm shop for us, seasonal UK produce, apart from bananas all year round and satsumas/oranges at Christmas.

Local meat including bacon.

Local caught fish from Leigh-on-Sea.

I am so cross with certain MP’s stating that in the U.K. we need to eat less red meat to save the planet.

Cows farts are apparently more dangerous than China’s, Russia’s, USA and many other emissions…

Asparagus from Peru or from Herefordshire, a few miles from up the road?
Strawberries from Kent or Herefordshire or from Morocco?
Tomatoes from Kent or Spain?

I know which I try to choose but, As GeorgesGran just said, people expect salad in January now, strawberries at Christmas and I suppose supermarkets have to keep all their suppliers happy and order from overseas even during the British growing season.

A local village shop used to stock a lot of local produce but, sadly, has closed down now.

"Red meat from local UK farmers should be reduced. It’s bad for the planet.”

Yes, I agree it is ridiculous, Mollygo!

Let's encourage the chopping down of the rainforests, decimate the homes of orangutans and other endangered species so that we can all eat soya instead.

I buy imported foodstuffs that can't be grown in the UK because I like them, but for seasonal things that are UK grown I rarely, if ever, buy imports. Nothing equals UK asparagus for taste, so I'll not buy the Peruvian offerings. Thanet Earth tomatoes are available all year round so that's what I buy and if for any reason my supermarket doesn't have any then I do without. As for strawberries at Christmas I find imported strawberries decidedly lacking in flavour at any time of year so wouldn't buy. Part of the joy of seasonal soft fruit is the limited availability.

Mollygo and Allira, I agree with both of you.

We go one step further and ask the supermarket why our own grown produce is on the top shelf when imports are in line of site
As some on here know I have driven through the polytunnels in Spain many times.
If you were to see the conditions and living quarters you might think differently when you see produce of spain

petra

We go one step further and ask the supermarket why our own grown produce is on the top shelf when imports are in line of site
As some on here know I have driven through the polytunnels in Spain many times.
If you were to see the conditions and living quarters you might think differently when you see *produce of spain*

Totally agree, when we are in Spain we buy from the local roadside vendors, they may be misshapen but the flavour is far better.

Notagranyet24

Someone on MN recommended the new documentary by film maker, Adam Curtis. It's called Shifty, a set of five programmes on Iplayer.
It's about what went wrong with Britain in the 20th century, we watched the first one last night. It would answer a lot of the questions above.

It was me. I found the whole series very enlightening, but would also throw the Brexit word in here too...?

When I was a child, each counil Estate here had a little row of shops which included a butcher and a greengrocer. At the bottom of our road was a little Market Garden where we might have to wait while the owner dug up some spuds and cut a cabbage. We had four farms within the town's boundaries. Later we got a small shopping area in the town centre (as much as we had one). I remember four butchers (Wests, Dewhurst, Baxters and one other) and a wet fish shop. Now we have Asda, Sainsburys and a lot more houses and tacky flats. No farms, no greengrocers, no fishmongers, no bakery. (I don't count Greggs as a bakery or even a food shop!)

As far as possible I grow my own veg and fruit. Nearly 60 years ago I got an allotment and have hung onto it (although the original was built on and I had to move to a smaller replacement). It would take 6 years or more to get one now. It supplies me with fruit and veg for a couple of months plus some gets frozen and excess fruit becomes jam or gets bottled.

I don't buy Avocados. I don't buy Kenyan beans or Moroccan mangetout or Spanish Strawberries. I go without if I can't find or grow UK. I never buy those tasteless, hard, red objects they laughingly claim are tomatoes or the cricket balls masquerading as peaches. My Apricot tree died last winter so I have bought a Peach tree.

We do have a butcher at the far end of town. I occasionally buy from them if I am in that part of town (rare) but I would have to order Rabbit - only available as selected joints - and pigeon is not available at all. Their meat is good, mostly British produced, but horrendously expensive.

CariadAgain

Cynics time here - could it be that food grown in Britain uses our land for that purpose - when some people (eg our Government) would much prefer to just build/build/build on it all?

Not a cynical pov. Just better informed.
Also if any of our political parties were in power, they too would be following the same globalist agenda, maybe not at the speed we see now, but definitely the same trajectory.

petra

We go one step further and ask the supermarket why our own grown produce is on the top shelf when imports are in line of site
As some on here know I have driven through the polytunnels in Spain many times.
If you were to see the conditions and living quarters you might think differently when you see *produce of spain*

Highlighted by Simon Reeves when he visited Spain.

The plastic from discarded poly tunnels is feet deep in the landfill, there.