Future

Dear All,

While we are discussing what can be done to improve growing and eating more healthily here, we will become more aware that our future will  be in a world  changing more than we have ever known.

Ecologically, look at the effects of ever faster global warming is having on where crops can be grown. This is  contributing to more extreme  climate changes in ever more unpredictable ways.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, it gave us a jolt about our dependency on the bread basket of Europe.  But now, we are about to enter a new era where ‘free-trade’ is no longer the mantra. Trump is using tariffs to bludgeon a new landscape, and nobody knows what this will look like in 5 years time.

Economically, keep an eye on how US foreign policy changes. After the war, the US created the Marshall Plan, where the US got rid of its excess food to a starving Europe. Much of the EU policy today is still geared to not letting that dependency happen again. Since then this US plan has extended round the world, virtually as the US foreign policy. But now Trumps' tariffs are making gaps in food delivery. Crop like soy will open up for many more countries to fill. How that will pan out, and its impact on UK, needs close consideration, when we try to take control of our food production.

Cheers Charlie

Here are some of the main points from the film for you to discuss and decide what demands to make within your own sphere of influence.

1. Cut down on Ultra-Processed Foods:.
   How can you tell what you’re eating is ultra-processed, and how can you reduce their use. Lobby governments to include in any future plans to reduce obesity. New phase of scrutiny in 2026

2. Get more access to land for communities to grow more local food. Allotments are under more threat-with more building. Are there ways to protect them and promote growing areas within building developments?

3. Open up debate about who owns the land and how we can have more say in what is grown there. E.g. is the use of 3 million acres of land in the UK for grouse shooting really a sustainable use of resources?

4. Promote the ‘old EU subsidy’ money -to be used to subsidise healthier eating.
   There is about £3Billion of previous EU funds that could be used to help poorer people buy better food produced locally - like the US SNAP system.

5. Introduce ‘Seed’ funding (perhaps ex EU monies above) to stimulate new ‘Green’ economies, linking town and country, thus creating  ‘real’ green jobs growing more food.

6. Make sure you add ‘food and farming’ to any debates about greening the economy. Most industrial strategies talk about energy, cars, steel, batteries, emissions, and targets - but rarely a mention of the greatest carbon-capture and storage units - plants.