Monday, 11 2007

Food security - a cautionary tale

Imagine sudden climate change affecting the northern hemisphere. Seven years of wet weather – harvests spoiled and forage crops wasted. Livestock slaughtered early for a lack of feed, a shortage of staples in the diet, malnutrition and mass starvation leading to 10% population loss.

Couldn’t happen could it?

But it already has – the great famine of 1315-22.

A recent Defra paper “Food Security and the UK” argues that self sufficiency is unimportant and that free trade in foods will always provide us with food security. But what if there is no food elsewhere? Surely a reasonable degree of self sufficiency is a prerequisite to food security.

Defra was careful to start its analysis of historic events in 1586 thus avoiding the great famine. I wonder why? And is this the same Defra that is warning us of the risks of climate change. Substitute drought for “wet weather” in the first paragraph and…………

Give trees a chance

Nowadays its relatively rare to see a tree like this (photo taken on 2nd June). Closely surrounded by a barley crop, this is the kind of practice that gives farmers a bad name. It may have been fashionable in the 1970’s but it makes no sense now.

Here are the economics:

Which means that giving trees a chance, also makes financial sense too!

Replies:

tim relf: Guess you may already know about this - but if not, there is an Ancient Tree Hunt under way at the moment. http://www.fwi.co.uk/blogs/rural-life/2007/06/branching-out.html