“We need to ensure we can feed ourselves as well as grow an export market. Climate change will affect crops around the globe and we must be able to adapt, possibly even benefit from the situation. Food shortages are probable and mono crops, focused on one product, are inadvisable. Diversifying our farms to include a broad crop base would stimulate the local and national economy, build resilience to food shortages and the inadvisable practice of farming focused on cattle alone.”
News during the week that due to adverse weather conditions in Spain there is a shortage of some vegetables across Europe reminded me of the National Economic Dialogue I attended in 2015. My blog from that is here, excerpt above.
Here is a report from the Guardian on January 20th 2017 and another from RTE on February 3rd about the current veg crisis.
Imagine if instead of sniggering at suggestions to change, policy makers and “massive industrial agriculture lobby groups” actually listened. We may be in a position to supply the market currently experiencing shortages. Funnily enough I have lettuce in my poly tunnel thriving in a grow box that’s falling apart at the seams being held together by bungees. Hope you like the picture 🙂
Theresa O’Donohoe February 6th 2017
TheresaOD.com 