Cast your mind back to earlier this year, when gaps started to appear on Britain’s supermarket shelves. First it was tomatoes, then lettuces, then citrus fruit. A generation that had grown up with shops laden with fresh, sun-kissed produce all year round — even in the depths of winter — were confronted with the harsh reality that we rely on imports for 43 per cent of all our vegetables. For fruit it is 85 per cent.
Many people suggested the answer to the shortages was to rely more on home-grown fruit and veg, not least Thérèse Coffey, the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, who said we should “cherish the specialisms that we have in this country” such as “turnips”.
She was