The UK population is currently 68.4 million and is expected to rise to 73 million in the next 15 years - this continued growth in population will inevitably lead to an increase in the future demand for food.
Our eating habits have shifted significantly over the last few decades. Previous generations ate seasonal food which was grown in the UK, e.g. salad produce in summer and root vegetables in the winter, and most of this was bought from small shops which people visited several times a week, only buying small quantities of food. A lot of this was down to practicalities - not everyone had access to a car so could only buy what they could carry home, and many homes lacked refrigerators, so couldn't store chilled food at home. Most households also made jams and pickles - something that very few of us do these days. The rise of supermarkets and the increase in car ownership in the 1980s overhauled how we shopped - buying in bulk and buying things that we could store at home.
Importing food
We have also started to demand seasonal produce all year around, and a greater choice and more exotic foods. This has meant that we have become reliant on importing food from other countries - buying food when it is out-of-season in the UK, but also items that we can’t grow due to our climate, such as cocoa, tea and bananas. This means that despite our efficient and productive agricultural industry, the UK is not self-sufficient for food because we import around 45% of our food from other countries. Supermarkets compete for the lowest prices so save lots of money by importing cheaper produce - UK farmers struggle to compete with these low prices, particularly when we factor in the cost of animal feed, or the risk of a poor harvest. This means that even when certain fruit and vegetables are in season in the UK, we still might be importing them from elsewhere where they are grown more cheaply.
How do our food choices impact those in other countries?
We have to import the out-of-season and exotic foods that we demand from other countries - usually LICs or NEEs who have the right climate. Whilst there is an issue with food miles and carbon footprint (click here for more details), our demand for imported produce creates huge numbers of job opportunities for people in LICs - for growers, but also those working in processing, packaging and transportation. These jobs are really important for the economy of developing nations - many LICs are still dominated by primary industries, such as farming, as they do not have the capital to invest in infrastructure to support manufacturing or services, so they rely on selling produce to HICs to make money. These jobs in farming lead to a positive multiplier effect - local people receive wages for their role in the supply chain, which they can spend on food, medicines, sending their children to school, etc, and the taxes generated from these jobs create revenue that can be spent on vital services, such as education and healthcare, which can help improve quality of life.
However, there are some drawbacks. In the countries that rely heavily on exporting produce, most farmland is given over to cash crops, which are crops that are grown to export. Often the produce being grown is of a higher value than what would have been grown previously, such as certain vanilla pods or coffee beans. These products cost a lot to buy in UK supermarkets so can be very profitable to grow, so it makes sense to focus on them. But it does mean that there is much less land available for local people to farm on for their own families, which can have an impact on local food supply and food security. These cash crops are usually grown on large plantations in areas where rainfall is unreliable, which means they need huge amounts of irrigation, leading to over-abstraction of local waterways, which can cause them to dry up. And finally, these crops are often grown using fertilisers and pesticides to ensure a high yield that is not destroyed by pests and diseases, but the farmers often lack protective clothing, meaning that they are exposed to dangerous chemicals whilst growing produce for the UK, and of course there is the issue of these chemicals running off into waterways, contaminating drinking water supplies for people who already may struggle with access to water.
