Would like to know which supermarkets are de-listing Russian goods

It would be good to see an area for allotments included on all housing development sites, or other pockets of land not in use, waiting lists for those existing are huge. A small, but not insignificant, if it took off, contribution to feeding people, encouraging the next generation too.

Well I also eat vegetables from the UK, including ones I’ve grown, as well as bananas, oranges, avocados, peanuts, peppers, my favourite olives - and I drink coffee, and wine, and I eat chocolate. I’m obviously not as virtuous as others, but I’m happy with my choices.

The only out of season we use is stuff grown in the garden from the freezer, although I’ve still got Carrots and Brussels fresh from the garden.

I do my best to eat seasonal veg grown in the uk. It can done. I have a very small garden and have chosen not to grow grass. I am self-sufficient in apples, gooseberries, blackcurrants, blueberries and strawberries. I also have 4x 1m beds in rotation, to grow salad potatoes, dwarf beans, carrots, purple sprouting brocolli, brussels sprouts, shallots, beetroot, lettuce, radish. I grow asparagus amongst my apple trees, roses and sedums. On the patio I have many troughs of the pink and red flowered strawberries, instead of annuals. I grow many herbs in a veg trug and have areas ready for tomato plants in growbags and also courgettes and mini cucumber in growbags

The roses, sedums, hellebores, echinaceae, heleanthemums, lavenders, pinks, 2 small rowan trees and ornamental grasses add colour and attract bees and birds. All this and a water feature for me and birds and insects, in my small potager garden. Yes we can grow much of our food, it just takes a willingness to do it.

You’d regret it if I cooked Urms!
I shall carry on with my British fruit and veg Casdon. Roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots and sprouts on Sunday.

It must just be the other 65 million eating it then Germanshepherdsmum. Seriously, I can’t see us going back to the traditional all grown in Britain way of eating.

(I rest my case!)

Yes do come over GSM! You could cook. I’ll pour the wine...
#lazygran

Can I come round Urms? Sounds delicious. No out of season foreign veg here!

Katie59:

'The political influence of the environment lobby is costing us dear, thats fine for those that can afford to pay.' (sic) -

we can't afford not to pay. Slowing down the destruction of the planet is rather more important than the cost of living. I don't see it as 'political', just a case of the results of our collective ignorance, greed - and sheer stupidity - coming home to roost.

Shouldn't our main concern be the survival of our grandchildren? We still have plenty of choice. For instance, we have no nutritional need to eat wheat.

A Lancashire hotpot one day. Roast potatoes with roast lamb another day. Minced lamb in a shepherd’s pie with the veg?
I’ll shut up now ...

If people wanted to eat more lamb, potatoes, carrots, swede and green beans we’d be self sufficient again, but they don’t.

Ooh I could do quite happily! Every night, my yummiest meal. Sounds lush.

Peartree

Why do we buy wheat from abroad? Are we not a nation of farmers?

our local farmers are growing biofuel on very fertile fields, that and oilseed rape to add to diesel. Good fertile land should be used to grow food. One field behind me was used year after year for winter wheat for animal feed. Thank heavens the new generation (son) has now diversified and started rotations

JL and therefore Waitrose are removing Russian goods from sale.

Canadian bread wheat in particular is very expensive in comparison currently around £300 a ton, although they have economy of scale yields are low. The UK does produce at world prices, currently wheat prices are high and farms are growing as much as they are allowed to by regulations.
Vegetables are limited by the availability of migrant labour for harvesting and processing, a lot is grown overseas and often transported by air to the UK not just out of season either, realistically more fruit and veg is going to be imported because labour, is cheaper, workers can be paid at Bulgarian or Kenyan rates.

Is that true Monica, or is it that we can’t be self sufficient if we continue eating the way we do? We’ve got one of the best climates in the world for growing vegetables, but we want more exotic fare.

The amount of land we are building on is insignificant compared with the amount that is farmed and much of it will not be suitable for growing grains.

We have been buying wheat from abroad for over 150 years. Quite simply the huge wheat praires of Canada, US and Ukraine can grow wheat far more cheaply than we do and the size of the population in the UK now compared with other countries, is so large we cannot be self sufficient.

Peartree

Why do we buy wheat from abroad? Are we not a nation of farmers?

We are building houses on our farmland because our increasing population needs homes.

I know that Katie59, but ultimately consumer choice is dictating what is grown in the UK, and what is eaten. We all have choices. We have to move to a more environmentally friendly society, and it’s too simplistic to say that it’s down to government policy, because you can’t bring back the past way of eating, there’s a huge amount we can’t grow successfully in the UK.

Casdon

I don’t believe what you say Katie59, the UK does import foodstuffs from all over the world, but it’s because people want access to a much wider range of foods all year round, not because of the environmental lobby. If people wanted to eat more lamb, potatoes, carrots, swede and green beans we’d be self sufficient again, but they don’t.

It is the policy of the government to source more food from overseas - fact. Farmers are being paid more to plant whole fields - not just field margins for environmental projects. Whole farms are being left for “wilding” because the environmental payments are much easier.

On the other side of the debate there is plenty of food we could buy from overseas that is cheaper because it is produced to lower environmental and welfare standards, while our farmers are tightly regulated.

More’s the pity. Our greengrocer sells mostly locally produced, seasonal fruit and veg. All fresh and delicious. Why do we really need asparagus in January, strawberries in February and so forth, both of which I could easily add to my Tesco order next week but won’t.

I don’t believe what you say Katie59, the UK does import foodstuffs from all over the world, but it’s because people want access to a much wider range of foods all year round, not because of the environmental lobby. If people wanted to eat more lamb, potatoes, carrots, swede and green beans we’d be self sufficient again, but they don’t.

Oops, I see there is another thread about Holland and Barrett which I need to read!

I don't fully understand it but there seems to be Russian involvement in Holland and Barrett.

Some years we do produce most of our bread wheat, on average it’s around 85% supplemented by Canadian and French mainly due to special properties. Other cereals, Maize, Soya and others byproducts come from the US, Brazil and elsewhere.