New Strategy Needed To Boost Consumption of Fruit and Veg, Says Think Tank

The UK government should produce a horticultural strategy to boost the consumption of fruit and vegetables in the country and ensure they are sourced domestically, says a briefing by think-tank Green Alliance.

Britain's consumption of fruit and vegetables needs to increase by 86 per cent to meet dietary guidelines, says the paper, citing research by non-profit the Food Foundation.

Expanding domestic horticultural production to meet this demand would add £2.3bn to the UK economy, create 23,520 jobs and increase farm profits across the country by 3 per cent, it adds.

The government should use its “land use framework” — which finished itsconsultation period on April 25 — to ensure expanding the horticultural sector does not come at the expense of UK self-sufficiency in other crops.

The framework should include provisions to ensure a limited number of horticultural crops are grown on lowland peat, a kind of soil that acts as a natural carbon sink and releases carbon when cultivated or drained.

Four-fifths of vegetables are suitable to be grown on other soils, while the remaining fifth, including crops such as celery, watercress and lettuce, can be grown in wetter conditions where emissions from peat are lower.

One way the government could free up land for fruit and vegetable growth is by no longer incentivising the growth of crops for bioenergy, argues the briefing. Bioenergy crops are “an extremely inefficient way to generate energy: per hectare, they produce 100 times less energy than solar and require government subsidy to be viable”, it says.

The government should consider removing incentives for bioenergy crops and instead explore what kind of “support” is needed to increase both the production and consumption of fruit and vegetables, the paper adds.

The briefing is available to read here.

Source: Sustainable Views