IN LATE MARCH we carried an article which revealed that Britain imports 40 per cent of its food. It also noted that 75 per-cent of the food we buy comes from Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. The reason for this is that far too many people live in flats in cities and towns with no access to gardens, allotments or any open space (1).

The National Liberal Party is opposed to the economic power and influence wielded by the multinationals who own the big supermarkets. We would like to see as many people as possible growing their own food. As we said at the time, ideally people should “have enough land to grow a fair proportion of food to feed their families. Smaller, family-run farms should make up the rest. We should cut imports down to very bare minimum.”

Whilst on the subject of food we would also like to see a return to traditional ways and means of production.

Let’s take bread as an example.

According to recent media reports (2) some bread sold in supermarkets is made with flour that’s been shipped across the globe, then frozen for up to a year before you buy it.

How local is your bread?

The report – by Rose Prince of The Telegraph – claims that the “crusty loaf on sale at opening time in your local supermarket may not have been kneaded, shaped and proved by a real baker, but brought in deep-frozen from a plant hundreds of miles away, defrosted and “baked-off” by staff who only need to know how to throw a switch. As well as this, the vast majority of our loaves are made from imported flour – with grains being bought from locations as diverse as Russia, Canada and France. One thing you can be sure of is that very little of the wheat used in supermarket bread will be British.”

Remember this article is just about one product – bread. It would be revealing to find out what goes into other mass produced food and also how it is concocted!

Once again, we feel that there’s a real need to return to simple, traditional and honest ways of growing and producing food. However, for this to happen there’s going to have to be a massive redistribution of land.

In the meantime, we’d call for all members and supporters to avoid the big supermarkets where possible. Why not support your local shops, shopkeepers and shop workers instead?

(1) http://nationalliberal.org/?p=2080

(2) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8414653/The-truth-about-your-supermarket-loaf.html