Droughts and wildfires in the summer were a wake-up call and winter flooding could leave Wales' food supply vulnerable, an expert has warned. The country currently imports the vast majority of its fruit and vegetables, with only 6% of those served in its schools grown in Wales. It is dependent on produce from parts of the world prone to droughts and fires, according to co-founder of an organisation aiming to address this.
Duncan Fisher is behind Our Food Trust, external, which wants to build 100 farms, producing fruit and vegetables in Wales for local markets. Despite 90% of the country being used for agriculture, external, only about 0.1% is currently being used for horticulture, external. Growers at Fisher's Wern Farm, near Newtown, Powys, said this must change if the country is to survive climate change, wars and other global disruptions to the supply chain.
"We are hugely dependent and these vegetables are coming from really vulnerable parts of the world like south Europe and north Africa - the areas most prone to drought, fires, and overheating," said Fisher. Food security has become a hot topic, with Defence Secretary Wes Streeting saying in October people should have water, tinned goods, baby food, torches and mobile phone charging packs ready in case of emergency. Fisher referenced this appeal, adding the UK "has an incredibly centralised food system with 95% of the food we eat bought from nine supermarkets".
He said: "There's no storage, it's a just-in-time system so the food is stored in lorries moving across motorways. "That is a security hazard because it's very vulnerable to cyber attacks. "If the system goes wrong, there's no resilience in it.
The food just runs out straight away." Fisher and Sue Holbrook launched Our Food Trust about 10 years ago with the aim of growing more produce locally for local markets. They found one of the main barriers was stable housing for farmers. As Fisher explained: "If there's a high wind during the night, they need to get out there and protect things.
"If a sheep gets in, they have to get the sheep out before the entire thing is destroyed in an hour. So they have to live there." But he said planning regulations have made it really difficult to build homes on farmland. However, by working with Powys council and Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority, they have been able to build three temporary homes for farmers on 36 acres of council-owned land.
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