There have been some fundamental changes to all of our lives over the past six years, the Brexit referendum, the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is hard to overestimate the impact of these events.
The most obvious result has been inflation bringing a cost of living crisis, particularly in food and energy. It is shocking that, according to the latest figures, almost ten million people in this country are struggling to feed themselves adequately and, for many, it is a choice between food and warmth. Fortunately, the weather has been exceptionally mild this autumn but there are months of winter still to come.
Food prices rose by 16.2% in the year to October but the cost of many basic foodstuffs has risen far higher than that. Milk is 65% more expensive than a year ago, eggs 22%, pasta 34%, flour and cereals 28%. Problems started in the fruit and vegetable sector when the Brexit vote resulted in far fewer European workers coming to the UK for harvest, resulting in crops rotting in the fields. This year, the situation has been exacerbated by summer drought bringing poor yields, especially for root vegetables. The shortage of labour also had an impact on other areas of the food and hospitality industry.
Covid brought its own problems, particularly for hospitality, with knock-on effects throughout the food chain. Then the war in Ukraine disrupted trade in goods from oil and gas to wheat, oilseed and fertiliser. The impact was profound with rampant inflation of costs in energy, food, transport and labour. The increase in the cost of nitrate fertiliser, from less than £300 to over £800 per tonne, pushed up the price of wheat and other crops. That raised the price of animal feed and thus the cost of dairy products, meat and eggs.
In such a cost of living crisis, it is entirely natural that supermarkets try to help their customers by holding down prices, but that has hit suppliers. The current shortage of eggs has been blamed on avian flu, which undoubtedly has had a major impact, but poultry farmers say they cannot produce eggs for the price the retailers are paying them, thus exacerbating the shortage.
The Lea Valley, north of London, is a major centre for salad growers. 75% of the cucumbers and peppers grown in this country come from there but rising costs have made it uneconomic. Supermarkets pay 40p per cucumber but the cost of production is now 70p and half of the Lea Valley growers have not planted any vegetables at all this year. Professor Tim Lang, emeritus professor of food policy at City University London, says that this situation cannot last; of the money spent by consumers on food, 25% goes to retailers and only 8% to farmers. That needs to rise to at least 15% to be sustainable.
One for the many charities helping to feed the hungry is the Country Food Trust. It was set up in 2015 with a generous donation with the aim of providing individual meals based on game meat in pouches with a shelf life of a year. The first 2,000 pouches of country casserole were donated in 2016 with the objective of reaching one million within five years. The following year, the scheme was expanded to donate frozen meat to those charities with the facilities to cook meals for the hungry. The one million target was met a year early and the total now stands at 2,721,418.
There has never been a greater need to help those struggling to feed themselves and yet donations to charities are dwindling. Last year the winter appeal for the Country Food Trust raised £220,000 but progress this year is much slower. Demand for meals from desperate food banks has doubled but donations have fallen by 68%. The Trust cannot accept pheasants and partridges directly from shoots as they have no processing facilities, so the meat has to come through game dealers. Whilst there is plenty of venison as estates try to reduce deer numbers that expanded rapidly during Covid lockdowns, game dealers are concentrating on processing deer rather than birds, which also have restrictions due to avian flu. The best way for shoots to support the Trust is to donate money which then can be used to buy pheasant and partridge meat from game dealers.
The pouches can also be bought directly from the Trust online, although only the venison Bolognese is currently available. Each costs £5.99 for an individual meal but, for every one bought, the Trust can donate two more to the hungry. From personal experience I can attest that the meal is healthy and delicious and would urge people to buy them. Even better, whilst on the website, donate money to the winter appeal too. This is a brilliant charity that provides essential help for the hungry whilst ensuring that healthy, free range game meat goes for human consumption.
We need more emphasis on high quality local produce in season with less exotic products imported from around the world. Of course, it is easier for those who live in the countryside who are more likely to have a garden to grow their own fruit and vegetables. There are numerous farm shops whilst, at this time of year many shoots are happy to give away pheasants or partridge to local people. It is easy enough to remove the breast meat, a very healthy source of protein.
But even in our cities there is a village culture with small local shops selling loose fruit and vegetables rather than the washed and packaged products found in supermarkets. At least that way you can buy only what you need thus cutting out wastage. This crisis shows up the inadequacies of our food system with its impact on the nation’s health. Is it too much to hope that it may act as a catalyst for fundamental change?
Please visit the Country Food Trust website: www.thecountryfoodtrust.org.