For everything there is a season

If you’re like me, “growing your own” has sparked a passion for seasonal food. Fuelled by the changing seasons and some effort on my part, I’m able to experience one of the real pleasures of life — harvesting seasonal fruit and vegetables at their ripest and most nutritionally dense and being able to say “I grew that!” I’m the grower and the consumer – it’s a simple system that’s fully traceable from plot to plate. But what about the food that we don’t grow ourselves? Where does our food come from and how well has the land that provided it been cared for?

THE COST OF CHEAP PRODUCE

As a nation, we are obsessed with cheap food. Decades of government policy aimed at making food cheaper has simply fuelled health problems with rising obesity at the expense of the environment and the decline of high streets and rural communities.

Consumers have an expectation of a supply of cheap fruit and vegetables being available irrespective of the time of year. This year-round supply of fresh produce has been made possible through intensive industrial agricultural practices such as the use of new technologies, including vertical farming in plant factories, extending natural production and growing seasons, yields and pest resistance through genetically modified plant breeding and increased international trade.

Browsing online at a major supermarket reveals a bewildering choice of ‘seasonal’ produce — in the depths of winter it’s possible to buy raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, figs, peaches and nectarines, courgettes, corn and runner beans among