City Cottage July 1 | Page 8

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Dig for

Whilst

S u rv i va l

Farming minister David Heath urges families to‘ Grow their own’, here at City Cottage we dig out an idea we had a while ago...
Here at City Cottage we got a little dispondent when people continued to call us idiotic for saying we will have food shortages in the UK, and around the Western World.
David Heath, farming minister, said this week:
‘ With an increasing population, increasing demand not just in this country but across the world, we are going to have to increase food production.
‘ We made a huge mistake a few years ago when the idea got around that we didn’ t need to produce in the agricultural sector any more, that we would be able to buy our way through whatever was necessary to feed the country.
‘ Once we used to“ dig for victory”. There may come a time soon when we need to“ dig for survival”.’
Needless to say, you’ ll forgive us for saying‘ I told you so!’
Some years ago we started a campaign called 52 meals to save the planet. The government said it was pointless, and the whole thing petered out. But spurred on, we are starting it again.
The fundamental idea behind 52-meals is to get people to grow enough food for just one meal a week, and the effects of this transformation will be to save not only an awful lot of CO2 but lots of energy, pollution and at the same time keep you fitter and fill your purse a bit too. If we all ate 3 square meals a day, this is 21 meals a week which, in a year, amounts to 1092 meals, the cost of which have rocketed in recent years. The UK has had the worst food inflation in Europe for the last two years.
Food inflation
According to the Mirror the following foods have increased in price:
• Bananas + 19 %
• Broccoli + 43 %
• Carrots + 18 %
• Apples + 8 %
• Potatoes + 3 %
• Onions + 16 %
• Tomatoes + 26 %
• Grapes + 18 %
• Milk + 6 %
• Eggs + 1 %
• Beef mince + 20 %
• Chicken + 6 %