Type and hit ENTER
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • About Fi
  • CONTACT
  • OUTDOORS
    • Outdoor gear reviews
    • Map reading and navigation
  • TRAIN ADVENTURES
    • Ideas to get you started
    • Station to station walks
    • Devon and Cornwall
    • UK train adventures
    • Europe train adventures
  • WRITING
HOP ON BOARD
I'm a freelance writer and content creator with a passion for the outdoors and sustainable travel. I specialise in sustainable travel, gear reviews, walking routes and outdoor advice. Let's chat about your next project.
Fi Darby Freelance
Image Not Found On Media Library
Image Not Found On Media Library
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • About Fi
  • CONTACT
  • OUTDOORS
    • Outdoor gear reviews
    • Map reading and navigation
  • TRAIN ADVENTURES
    • Ideas to get you started
    • Station to station walks
    • Devon and Cornwall
    • UK train adventures
    • Europe train adventures
  • WRITING

Can jam making help us avoid a food crisis?

February 28, 2019

Have we lost too many traditional food skills to survive?

I am in the grip of a writer’s conundrum here, on one hand I am doing my utmost to sit on my frustrations and stay out of the Brexit debate, on the other, I like talking about food (and of course eating it). The headlines regarding a potential UK, post-Brexit food crisis appear to have a fair amount of substance behind them. It makes sense, if we only produce 60% of the food we need, then we are going to face a shortage if we struggle to import the rest. On the other hand, our post farm-gate food waste is showing no sign of reducing from the staggering 10.2 million tonnes (7.1 million tonnes for household food waste) reported by WRAP in 2015 (this is, of course, not representative across all households, too many simply don’t have enough to eat). But taking the UK as a whole, by my very simple calculations, if we had a population of 65.13 million in 2015, our household food waste was 0.16 tonnes or 160 kilograms each. That’s the equivalent of 160 medium cantaloupes, which, of course, we will struggle to grow ourselves so won’t be throwing away at all in 2019.

Which kind of brings me to my (quite possibly flawed and simplistic) point. Isn’t there just a chance that, with food shortages looming, we might start to see a few improvements in our relationships with food purchasing, food allocation, UK farming and farmers, and the way we consume what we buy? How many of us really appreciate the hard work and decades of experience that go into farming? How many of us currently grow our own fruit and vegetables, eat local produce in season, use every part of what we buy or understand how to preserve what we don’t immediately eat? Skills such as making jam, pickling onions, boiling bone broths and even picking blackberries are way below the radar of many Brits and most of us have no idea what a pig eats. You only have to examine the expansion of supermarket ‘ready-meal’ aisles to work out these things. If a temporary or even threatened breach in the food supply chain does occur, it would be good to think that, instead of stock-piling, we turned to stock making. A romantic notion I know, but it is one I like.

February 28, 2019
Email
No comments yet

Related News

Other posts that you should not miss.

Is there ultra-processed food in my fridge?

February 20, 2020

Spotting stealth ultra processed food takes some effort and learning. Being a copywriter I have a tendency to …

Read More
February 20, 2020

Resolutions to protect our outdoor spaces

January 3, 2022

Resolutions to help us care for the places we love. EARTH CARE – PEOPLE CARE – FAIR SHARE …

Read More
January 3, 2022

Take more or use less. We have a choice

March 26, 2020

Here in the UK, there is enough to go around. With supermarket shelves still struggling to keep up …

Read More
March 26, 2020

Leave a Comment

Your feedback is valuable for us. Your email will not be published.
Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

OUTDOOR AND TRAVEL WRITER

Outdoors life by Loch Lomond in Scotland

You love the outdoors. I love the outdoors.
Let's make beautiful content together.

fi darby
Channel 4 - Devon and Cornwall

adventures by train blog writing car free devon family walks freelance writing hiking outdoors outdoor writer outdoor writing station to station sustainable travel torbay torquay train adventures trains Travel travel writing walking walking route working from home writing

HOP ON BOARD
I'm a freelance writer and content creator with a passion for the outdoors and sustainable travel. I specialise in sustainable travel, train adventures, gear reviews, walking routes and outdoor advice.

LET'S CHAT ABOUT YOUR NEXT PROJECT

OUTDOOR AND TRAVEL WRITER
  • January 16, 2025
    Travel writing tips – how to take effective notes
  • January 7, 2025
    Is geotagging bad for the environment?
  • January 1, 2025
    What does an outdoor influencer look like?
  • December 23, 2024
    Outdoor and travel writing trends for 2025
  • Instagram
  • Email
Fi Darby Freelance
© Fi Darby 2025 All Rights Reserved
Can jam making help us avoid a food crisis? - Fi Darby