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Last week our Prime Minister’s office issued an “independent report” calling for the UK to override EU regulations and start growing GM crops in the UK. What we were not told was that all of its authors had close links with the GM industry, as seen in the national press since the report’s release.
As days lengthen and temperatures rise, our purple sprouting broccoli, leeks and cauliflower are rushing to seed and bringing the old season to an end. Our crop of spring greens, planted on a north facing hill, will hang on for a week or so before they too divert their energy from leaf growth to reproduction. The newly planted cabbage, lettuce, pak choi and beans are doing well under their fleeces, but it will be at least two weeks before we have anything fit to pick and more like two months before we have a good range of veg from our own fields once more.
I am writing this on our farm in the French Vendée where, as we plant more crops and the weeds start romping away, stress levels are rising fast. It doesn’t help that while the workload increases, it’s impossible to get a Frenchman to work on Sunday or curtail lunch. Annoying as it is, I can’t help admiring such uncompromising relegation of the demands of work; lunch is quite rightly non-negotiable. Staffing up for our manic, hungry gap-plugging eight week season is always going to be challenging, but we have a great team and despite the shorter hours I suspect they get as much done.
“…and virtue is a good thing,” is what my partner Geetie tells her 5 year old daughter at least three times a week. That never worked on a Sainsbury buyer I once worked with, but I will try it on you and throw in a plea to accept a little compromise (that never worked either). Summer is taking its time to arrive and most crop covers are staying on while we wait for the temperature to rise, but with no late frosts and enough windows of dry weather to get the planting done, we are not complaining.
According to Adam Smith and most classic economic theory, trade harnesses and drives specialisation and generates wealth. When combined with scale and global trade, specialisation also produces fantastic mobile phones and cars. I’m less convinced that it produces good food in an environmentally and socially acceptable way, but the same trends towards scale and specialisation can be seen in agriculture.
Issue 12: Fairness and five years.
Find out more about Wicked Leeks and our publisher, organic veg box company Riverford.