For the first time since the Second World War, the UK has a Council looking at Food Security, reports the Telegraph. At the recent Chatham House Conference on Food Security, Hilary Benn launched the Council of Food Policy Advisors while declaring:

With rising prices and increasing demand across the globe, we can’t take our food supply for granted. Our food supply needs to be reliable and resilient and able to withstand shocks and crises.

. . . the foods that can be produced in this country we are currently 74% self-sufficient – a higher proportion than in the 1930s or the 1950s . . .

Our food supplies must remain secure, and we must have a strong, thriving, environmentally sustainable farming industry in this country that continues to produce a significant proportion of our food.

He concludes with a worthy statement of intent:

The simple truth is that it is wrong in the 21st century that anyone should go to bed hungry at night.

And it is our job to make sure that it is in the 21st century that we make this poverty, and this hunger, history. 

Amen to that.

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On the 6th & 7th of October Chatham House held a conference on Food Security in the 21st Century. In itself this suggests that there is a problem worth considering, and the list of presenters emphasises its importance: The Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for DEFRA; Prof. John Beddington, Government Chief Scientific Adviser; and Joseph Glauber, Chief Economist, US Department of Agriculture among others.

We didn’t have a ticket, but the reported outcomes are interesting reading. The Guardian has a copy of the draft report, to be released in November, and states:

The UK’s food system is unable to cope with rapid changes in supply driven by climate change, rising energy prices and population growth.

 That seems pretty clear, and it appears they are prepared to start to think the unthinkable - that the free market for food will not provide an answer for the whole population:

Consumers are likely to have to accept a shift from individual preferences to a system in which government and industry have to ensure the food that is sold reflects the wider needs of society.

They go on to discuss the rising pressures on UK food supply from developing world appetites, water supply and climate change issues, but even without these we face one overriding fact:

UK consumers use food at a rate that represents six times more land and sea than is available to them.

That seems to me to be the clearest indication yet that we have a problem. Lets get on with the solution.

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At UrbanGrown, we hold these truths to be self-evident:

• Everyone needs good, healthy, food to live, thrive and survive.
• Britain cannot feed itself using current farming methods without importing food.
• As the price of oil increases, food imports increase in price. Many “everyday” foods will become too expensive for regular consumption.
• Food in Britain travels long distances for storage, processing and distribution.
• As oil availability decreases, it will be difficult to transport food long distances. Supplies will regularly be disrupted.
• Britain can feed itself, with good, healthy, food using the best small-scale growing methods.
• Irrespective of wealth, race or religion, everyone will need access to land on which they can grow, or help to grow, food for themselves, their family and their community.
• Growing food will be more labour intensive than it is at the moment.
• More people will have a close connection with the origin of their food. 
• It is YOUR responsibility to make sure that you, your family, and community have enough food to eat.

This is a work in progress - fire away with suggestions.

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Welcome to UrbanGrown!

We’ve setup UrbanGrown to celebrate the great work put in by everyday people across Britain. To toast their efforts in Garden Sheds and Greenhouses, Allotments and Community Gardens, Farmers’ Markets and Vege Boxes. We want to bring together the best of their experience - your experience - to make sure that Britain is ready for the great adventure that awaits us all in the next decade-or-so.

 “Ok, you’ve lost me there!”  I hear from the back.
“What’s this great adventure? Why wasn’t I invited? And where are my tickets?”

That’s a good point - so here’s the brochure, and I’ll get to your invite in a minute . . .

Over the next decade (or so) we have the opportunity to be part of one of the most exciting phases in human history. Together we’ll have the power to shape the kind of world we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in: their true inheritance from us, the last generation with easy, cheap access to fossil fuels.

 “Ah!”  I hear you say, “now I get it! This is run by those crazy peak-oil people who think we’re about to run out of oil/gas/coal/water/pepsi and who tell us to buy tinned food, guns, and a hidden spot in the country.” Sorry to disappont you, but its not - if you need a dose of that, go here.

This is about realising that we can’t rely on cheap oil forever and that, sooner or later, change is coming. It’s about embracing that change, and making the journey “more like a party than a protest march”, as the Transition Movement say.
More specifically, it’s about making sure that we have plenty of food and drink to party with, and that there’s enough to go around.

So here’s your invitation, come with us on this adventure: we’ll need guides, people with a range of skills and passions, and eager followers to help those who stumble along the way - to keep the knowledge and skills alive.
If you garden, or shop for food, or cook, or farm, or keep chickens (or pigs, goats or cows), or just have a window box and some aspirations - or are interested in learning - then join in!

We’ll be opening the site up progressively, to build a living guide to the best ways to grow and supply food to Britain through the Energy Crunch to come. And we’ll make an adventure of it!

 So get ready - the future is ours to decide.

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