Falling self-sufficiency means Britain produces less than two-thirds (62%) of the food the country consumes, down from 75% in 1991, the National Farmers\’ Union said. If all the food produced in the UK in a year were stored and eaten from January 1, the \’\’cupboard\’\’ would be bare by August 14, the NFU has calculated.

Thank goodness for trade, eh?

And let\’s think this through a little more shall we? If London had to rely upon the food grown in London then by which day of the year would it run out? Jan 3 perhaps? And if Lincolnshire had to rely upon the food produced there, when would the tatties run out? November two years later maybe? And no, there is no difference at all between inter and intra national trade in food.

We can go further too. My household would run out of food on Jan 1 if dependent upon household production of food. And there are many households that would run out of badly formulated rants about matters economic on Jan 1 if they were forced to rely upon their own home production of that good and or service. And no, there is no difference at all between inter, intra national and household trade in such matters.

Given that we have discovered trade, indeed there are those who insist that trade was discovered before homo sapiens sapiens strode the Earth, it does seem somewhat foolish to worry about what would happen if we had not discovered trade.

Farmers are calling for support from politicians, the public and food industry to back British farming and help them produce more.

Oh Aye, give us yer money?

\’\’Right across the board farmers have a fantastic natural capacity to produce more British food, given the right market signals and the confidence to invest. We have the right technologies to produce more from less, with precision farming helping to target fertiliser and crop protection products within centimetres.

Ah, yes, raise prices to us!

\’\’Laser technology can even pinpoint an individual weed, improving accuracy and efficiency. Crops grown under cover help to lengthen the season for our British fruits. \’\’But there is more to do to empower our farmers to enable them to make the most of our natural resources and feed our growing nation.\’\’ He urged the Government to help create an environment where farming businesses could invest, to address market failures and iron out price volatility to ensure the food chain can increase supplies.

Yup, prices up please!

Sadly, they rather miss the point that if pries of UK grown food rise then trade just becomes more attractive, doesn\’t it?