Could The Uk Provide Enough Food To Feed It's Population If ...

[sandyRoe]

...it had to?

[davebro]

Only if we start eating Albanians!

[Khandro]

No, at least on nothing like the scale & variety of foods it does now, it couldn't even do it in WW2 with a much smaller population.

But I have the answer................. cannibalism

[davebro]

Soylent Green! - Cremation is such a waste of gas (and food).

[Old_Geezer]

Unsure; we do import a lot. I suspect yes, if everyone was happy to be on a basic diet, and more farmland was reused rather than left for wildlife. Obesity would become a rare condition.

But if that failed, a balance would be reached once enough died of starvation.

[andres]

Yes but we would have to eat less meat. More land would be needed for arable farming.

[davebro]

Well we had "Dig for Victory". I'm sure vast acres of garden could be turned to vegetable production & maybe a few chickens and a pig or two. Some of the older properties around here still have a sty in the back garden.

[jno]

if they all ate potatoes and there weren't any famines, yes, probably. But the smashed avocado season in Britain is brief; so people might have to adapt their diets to more local and less exotic foods. 60% of food was imported in 1939, so they had to adapt then.

[barry1010]

I already grow most of my fruit and veg, I have a freezer full of the stuff.
During the war my family had a pig and chickens in the yard. We also bred rabbits for the meat, many other families did the same. The back yard was small but we managed.
I am making space for this season's game birds and venison.

I would miss bananas and citrus fruit, though. I refuse to buy imported cane sugar and only buy British beet sugar. Lots of people would miss chocolate, coffee and tea.

[Togo]

The UK could easily grow enough food to feed itself. It would need proper investment in the sorts of hydroponic and indoor climate controlled indoor facilities, investment in staff and farm workers and their dwelling or travelling options but once that initial one off investment is made the ongoing costs cover themselves. It would certainly be more environmentally friendly that flying foodstuffs in from around the Globe and politically less fraught than relying on the not so friendly after all neighbours that we have naively trusted. The silly jibe that we could not feed ourselves in WW11 ignores the little detail that we alone for much of that time were fighting the nazis single handedly with no material help forthcoming from those that now think that fleecing us is acceptable. Our main objective in WW11 was to produce the arms to fight a murderous evil. We did that well and there is no reason to think that if we put our minds to it we could not also feed ourselves well. We would need to silence and shackle the doom mongers and eco freaks whilst we were at it but that would be win, win.

[Gromit]

No.
We haven’t been able to for decades.

[Togo]

Where to start hey? ^^ :))

[barry1010]

Wheat is a big problem - we have to import so much because we have always used a lot of wheat for animal feed and now it is also being used for biofuel.
Oil is a major headache, we import most of it from the Ukraine, Germany, Belgium, Russia (not at the moment!) and the Netherlands; using lard for cooking is very much out of favour.
We are a nation of bread and cereal lovers, we get through a lot of wheat and other cereal crops.
We simply can't grow a lot of our favourite food and drink.

[Togo]

//used a lot of wheat for animal feed and now it is also being used for biofuel.//

There is one of the issues Barry ... We have allowed ourselves to "diversify" into alternate crops and strains of produce that can be grown. Instead of the seed that produces edible grain we have been led to believe that growing the strains that feed animals or is good for eco fuels is good for our souls and the planet. It is another lie that we will need to dispel. We grew wheat, barley, and oats aplenty in previous times ... led the World in crop yields for some edible produce in previous eras and would need to find the will to do so again. It might be a good idea to find the will before we have the need. Funny old world where the criminals can get a crop of ganga up and running with a few heat/infra lamps, water and a few bags of soil in secret to supply a market that is still illegal, but we as a Nation do not see the wisdom in applying similar innovations to growing our own food.

[Buenchico]

Some key facts:

1. In meat, milk, and eggs, the UK produces a roughly equivalent volume to what it consumes.

2. The UK is largely self-sufficient in production of grains, producing over 100% of domestic consumption of oats and barley and over 90% of wheat.

3. The UK produces a significant proportion of its other crop needs, including around 60% of sugar beet, 70% of potatoes and 80% of oilseeds.

4. The UK produces over 50% of vegetables consumed domestically, but only 16% of fruit.

5. The UK both produces and consumes fish and seafood, but is a net importer overall. UK consumer preference is for fish mainly caught outside UK waters, such as cod, haddock, tuna, and shrimp and prawns. This means that the UK exports much of what it catches and imports much of what it eats.

All extracted from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2021/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2021-theme-2-uk-food-supply-sources

[Paigntonian]

The 'problem' is not food supply, it's diet.

[Paigntonian]

Never understood why, as a group of 2,000 islands, we can't eat more fish. Less obesity, less cancer. Iceland and Greenland can do it.

[Togo]

Good thread Sandy. Food for thought even.

[barry1010]

We eat a lot of fish and seafood in this house.