Lesson video

Hello, geographers.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson, which is all about food resources in the UK.

We're going to think about what sort of food do we eat and what opportunities does that create for the people that provide it in the UK and abroad, but also some of the challenges.

So let's make a start.

Our outcome for today is I can explain how changing demand for food in the UK creates opportunities and challenges.

And we have some keywords.

Organic produce.

This is food grown without the use of artificial chemicals, such as fertiliser and pesticide.

Carbon footprint.

This is a measure of all greenhouse gas emissions associated with a good or service, or lifestyle, expressed as tonnes, or kilogrammes, of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Agribusiness.

This is an intensive farming system often involving high capital costs to maximise profits.

And food miles, the distance food is transported from the producer to consumers.

So look out for those keywords as we move on through the lesson.

Our lesson is structured by these two key questions.

How is the UK's demand for food changing? And then how do our food choices affect the environment? Let's make a start on that first one.

So how is the UK's demand for food changing? Now, what's this? This is an interesting menu, isn't it? It's called the Hungry Gap menu.

Historically with its temperate maritime climate, the UK experienced a period of time known as the hungry gap in spring.

The starter appears to be nettle soup.

The main is bubble and squeak, which is refried cabbage and mashed potato.

Perhaps you've had that.

And the dessert is tinned peaches.

Do you fancy that? Sounds a little bit limited.

I'm not sure I fancy that nettle soup.

Nettles would have been foraged in spring historically, and cabbage was one of the few spring crops that were available.

This period was April, May and early June.

This was the period when there was less food available, hence the name hungry gap.

Can you imagine why that was? Well, the UK's spring harvest is limited and it's to do with our physical geography.

So few crops survive the UK's winter frost and low sunshine hours.

Hardy crops like cabbage and cauliflower abandon leaf growth and, of course, it's the leaves that we're eating, to flower and produce seeds as the temperatures warm up in spring.

And the new year's crops are growing still in the ground.

So we've got very limited food available and historically this meant that our spring diet was sparse, that hungry gap menu.

Much of the produce that had been stored from the the previous year would've been consumed by then or have gone off in the days before reliable freezers.

In fact, the new season broad bean crop traditionally marked the end of the hungry gap season.

Gosh, our menu was quite different historically.

Broad beans on toast, anyone? Exactly.

I prefer a kale smoothie, please! Well, that's interesting because a variety of the green leafy vegetable kale called Hungry Gap was introduced to the UK in the 1940s to help provide fresh food for Brits at this time.

So there was a response to the fact there was so little fresh food available in the early part of the year there.

Okay, now what we have here is a screen grab from a GIS package, so the Geography Visualizer.

And I've gone onto this package to get a map of a key physical factor affecting farming, which is annual temperature.

So here we can see colour has been used to show the annual average temperature across the UK and there's a particular spatial pattern to that, isn't there, in terms of the further north you go, the colder the annual average temperature.

Now, it's giving us details about a 30-year average from 1991 to 2020 inclusive.

British farmers must consider a wide range of factors, such as temperature, when deciding what to grow or what livestock to raise across the UK.

So those factors, as I say, include physical factors, like the physical geography, the climate, here we've got average temperature.

We might also look at annual rainfall or summer rainfall perhaps.

The other thing they need to consider, of course, are human factors, such as the market price, demand, costs of inputs like fertilisers and pesticides and perhaps the cost of labour.

So these are different things that farmers need to weigh up when they're deciding what they're going to grow or what livestock they're going to raise.

Life's quite different to when we have that hungry gap because actually, there is all-year demand for seasonal food now and that demand is met.

So today we have a huge choice of what to eat and UK consumers, like myself and yourself, want to eat a wide variety of food all year round.

If we look at that lunchbox, we can see we've got a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, for example.

We've got the comment there.

Well, does that mean the hungry gap has gone? What do you think? Well, with the temperate climate, the UK's food production is still limited by frost and lack of sunshine in winter.

So we can't entirely overcome our physical geography.

However, the cultivation of food crops in heated greenhouses is one way to extend the UK growing season.

This method of food production requires large amount of investment, so is only profitable for high-value fruit and vegetables.

So only some of the food we eat we can use that greenhouse or that horticulture approach.

Check for you here.

True or false? UK consumers have always had a wide variety of foods all year round.

Is that true or false? Pause the video now, discuss it with a partner and then restart it when you're ready to hear the answer.

And if you said false, do you have an explanation for me? The explanation we have is that historically, the UK experienced a period of time known as the hungry gap in spring and this period of time, April to early June, was when there was less food available due to the UK's temperate climate, making it difficult to provide fresh food year round.

Remember that hungry gap menu with the tinned peaches.

The UK grows about 60% of food consumed by its population, 60%, but the country's food security varies by food type.

Remember, food security is about the extent to which the country can produce its own food or rely on secure imports.

So let's have a think about that.

So cereals, 93% of cereals that we eat that are used here to make bread are UK grown.

Fresh veg.

53% of the veg we eat is UK grown.

But in contrast, only 16% of fresh fruit that we eat is UK grown.

So we're very heavily reliant on imports from different parts of the world.

So where does the food we eat in the UK come from? Well, if we look at this pie chart, take a look at that for a second.

We can see that as I said, 60%, 58% here of the UK's food supply is supplied from within the country.

But then we have 24%, so almost 1/4 coming from EU countries.

We have 7% from the Americas, 4% from the African continent, and then 4% from Asia and Australia or rather Oceania combined there with only a 3% coming from the rest of the world.

Much of the food we eat today is shipped to us from across the world in refrigerated containers.

And here we can see a container ship with those sort of universally sized containers, some of which are refrigerated.

And that's how a lot of food reaches us these days.

The map on the left is a cartogram map of the world in which countries are reduced or enlarged in size according to their share of avocado production.

Looks a bit strange, doesn't it? But if I add this reference map here, we can see that actually, we can identify the different parts of the world divided up here by colour into regions and it helps us to interpret the map.

Where is the UK? That's the question.

Can you see the UK? Well, I've added a ring to each map.

Hopefully for the reference map you were good.

But if we look at that cartogram, the UK is somewhere here.

We're not producing very many avocados, are we, in terms of that global production.

But clearly, we're eating quite a view.

The UK demand creates opportunities for people living in places with a contrasting climate to produce crops for export.

And here we can see another map of avocado production.

The countries in green are those that are producing avocados and we can see that the amount in tonnes on this choropleth map.

But I've highlighted Chile and Kenya here as key countries that are exporting to other countries around the world and in particular, Kenya exports to the UK.

Producers in the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere profit from supplying the UK with fresh produce such as avocados.

And, of course, Chile is there in the Southern Hemisphere.

Kenya's on the equator you'll remember.

Growing high-value fruits and vegetables for markets in high income countries is an important source of export revenue for low income countries, including Kenya.

The UK is second amongst European markets for consumption of avocado pears.

Probably a favourite of yours, isn't it? 'Tis of mine.

Kenya relies on about a million smallholders to provide most of this high-value export crop who benefit from improved incomes as a result.

So that fact that we want to eat avocados but we don't grow them has created a real opportunity.

True or false for you.

Then the UK's changing demand for food has created opportunities for some low income countries or lower income countries.

Is that true or false? And restart the video when you think you have an answer, but I need an explanation about why.

And if you said true, what was your explanation? Ours was, well, the change in demand for food has created opportunities for people living in places with a contrasting climate.

So something that's different to the UK.

Growing high-value fruits and vegetables for markets in high income countries, such as the UK, is an important source of export revenue for those low income countries, such as Kenya.

Well done if you had something like that.

I'm sure you did.

Now, UK shoppers, they're not just looking for exotic fruit and vegetable, high-value fruit and vegetable across the world, they're increasingly looking for organic produce.

This is food grown without the use of artificial pesticides and fertilisers.

The UK demand for organic food has actually doubled within the last decade.

Supermarkets stock organic produce to supply shoppers motivated by environmental and animal welfare concerns.

Organic veg box schemes are popular, and here we can see one particular scheme pictured.

They build a strong link between local growers and consumers.

However, a larger share of organic produce is imported than is the case for the UK's food supply overall.

So arguably, it's having an impact.

The fact that we prefer to buy or some people are preferring to buy organic is having an impact on the UK's food security.

Now, quick reminder, organic farming involves, I'm sure you know what that involves.

We've got a picture here of farmyard manure being used as a fertiliser on organic farms. Now, organic farming involves the use of farmyard manure, dung and straw, or bonemeal as fertiliser.

Crop rotation.

So another way that the soil is enriched is that the fields are cycled through different crops over time and those legume crops might be ploughed back into the soil as green manure because they fix nitrogen into the soil naturally.

Encouraging insects to prey on pests, such as aphids that might otherwise eat a crop is typically an approach in organic farming.

And high standards of animal welfare are associated with organic farming.

For example, easy access to the outdoors to graze or forage.

What organic farming does not involve, you'll remember is artificial pesticides or fertilisers, genetically modified or GM crops or livestock feed and it certainly doesn't involve the routine use of antibiotics.

So here we've got a farmer spraying a non-organic crop with artificial herbicides and you wouldn't see that within organic farming.

Sam makes the comment here, "If organic farmers don't use artificial chemicals on their crops, does that mean there's less to harvest on organic farms?" What do you think? Well, organic farming is less intensive, meaning the amount of food produced per hectare is less.

This is why organic food may be more expensive than food produced using artificial fertilisers and pesticides.

Perhaps you've noticed that.

Check for you here, which of the following statements about organic farming is or are true? I'll let you read through those and then restart the video when you think you know the answer.

And if you said B, it does not involve the use of artificial pesticides.

That's true.

And organically farmed food may be more expensive.

That's also true.

Remember, because it's less intensive.

Well done.

So I have some practise tasks for you here.

It's time to grab a pen.

First of all, I'd like you to describe three differences between the global pattern of production and consumption of strawberries using these cartograms. So we have a cartogram of global strawberry production and another cartogram of global strawberry consumption.

Secondly, I'd like to explain why the UK's all-year demand for seasonal food creates opportunities and challenges.

So two tasks, grab a pen, have a good think about those.

You might want to discuss it with a partner and then write up your ideas.

Restart the video when you want to check your answers.

Okay, how did we get on? So firstly, describing three differences between those two cartograms, one of strawberry production, one of strawberry consumption, we've got the countries kind of warped and stretched and reduced in size or enlarged in size according to their share of either production or consumption.

What was your comparison? We had the following.

Strawberry consumption is higher in the Northern Hemisphere.

Some countries have a large share of global production, but a very low share of global consumption.

For example, Morocco and China.

So they have a very low share of global consumption, but they're producing a lot.

Some countries consume a large share of strawberries but produce a small share of global production.

So France and Germany, a good example, but so too is the UK.

Did you have the UK? Then I asked you to explain why the UK's all-year demand for seasonal food creates opportunities and challenges.

This is the answer we had.

So an opportunity is that countries with a contrasting climate to the UK can export into our market to help meet all-year demand for seasonal produce.

For example, avocados can be sourced from Kenya and strawberries from Morocco during the winter months.

This is a source of export income for Kenya and Morocco and creates jobs in lower income countries.

A challenge is that as more people in the UK choose organic produce, production at home has not kept up with demand.

A larger share of organic produce is imported compared to the UK's overall food supply and this reduces the food security of the country, as does importing seasonal produce year round.

While more than 90% of cereal eaten in the UK is produced at home, only 16% of fresh fruit is homegrown.

So the UK's food supply is less resilient should trade be disrupted.

So what I like about that answer is we've got a good balance of opportunities and challenges.

So your answer needed both.

Okay, so we've done quite a lot in that first half of the lesson.

Let's have a look at the second half and our key question is how do our food choices affect the environment? Well, UK demand affects the environment at home and abroad.

And avocados, to be fair, have a bit of a reputation for this, don't they? Crops that require irrigation, like an avocado, may be imported from arid or semi-arid environments, raising concerns about the sustainability of their production.

Energy is used to keep the food cool that are shipped around the world and in refrigerated containers.

They might well be associated with a large carbon footprint.

But let's zone in on avocados for a moment.

In an arid environment, an avocado tree actually requires up to 1,300 litres of water to produce one kilo of avocado fruits for your smashed toast there.

In arid regions of high income country Chile, large-scale avocado farmers have been accused of overexploiting the region's precious groundwater sources for this export crop with social and environmental impacts.

So groundwater's being used for irrigation there.

Smaller-scale farmers, so farmers farming a much smaller plot of land, with shallow wells have been left with no water and local people have had to use water supplied by trucks, which is of poor quality.

So one example from an area of Chile in terms of how our food choices affect the environment.

Now, the UK demand affects the environment at home, as well as abroad.

And let's have a look at a couple of examples of that.

So foods with a short shelf life may be air freighted to the UK with a large carbon footprint.

And you'll remember that carbon footprint is to do with the carbon emissions associated with something, in this case, a crop.

Now, that affects the whole world, doesn't it, into the carbon emissions in terms of adding to the enhanced greenhouse effect.

Agribusiness is an intensive farming system often involving high capital costs to maximise profits, but raises concerns about the loss of biodiversity in the UK and if we look at that image there, we can see the monoculture crop there, we've got very few other species of plants within that field and we'd probably have to look to the hedge and perhaps the edge of the coastline there to look for some biodiversity.

So where we've got large agribusinesses farming a single crop in a large space of land and potentially ripping out hedge rows, that intensive farming system is having an impact on our wider environment.

Now, do you like strawberries? I like strawberries.

The UK's consumption of soft fruits has grown over time, more than doubling over two decades to 2019.

UK production has also increased, almost tripling, but doesn't match that demand.

So UK production supplies only about 70% of the strawberries we eat.

Here we have a bar graph of the top 10 strawberry exporters to the UK in 2023 and we can see the amount that they were exporting to the UK.

Strawberries are imported into the UK to meet demand beyond the UK's growing season.

We can see from that graph that EU countries, such as Spain and the Netherlands, are big suppliers.

But where else do imported strawberries come from? Well, strawberries and other soft fruits with a short shelf life may reach the UK on a plane and we can see from that graph we've just been looking at that some are travelling from Egypt, Morocco, or Jordan.

Travelling from these places, say we'll look at their major airport to London, if we calculate the distance, that's a huge total number of food miles associated with those imported strawberries and that transportation inflates the carbon footprint of the crop.

Air freight causes 40 to 50 times the CO2 emissions of sea freight.

So air freighting food to the country has a huge impact on the environment.

Happily, only a small percentage of the UK's food reaches this country by air.

So I say happily in terms of the climate impact of our food choices.

Conversely, there is a small but significant trend towards more local sourcing of food as people become more aware of, as we were talking about, the impact of food miles on the climate.

They become concerned about flavour, if you think about food that's been stored for long periods in cold storage.

And also people are concerned about the resilience of the UK's economy, meaning our food security.

This is a trend observed more widely in mainland Europe in countries such as Germany.

But what does that mean for what we eat? Well, maybe we're back to that pre-war menu.

Let's have a look at this local produce spring menu.

We've got, the starter is forager's soup.

Do you think that could be nettle soup really? We've got British bangers and mash.

So we've got the idea of local sourcing with seasonal cabbage.

Oh, that makes me think of that hungry gap menu again.

And then we've got our rhubarb crumble.

So we've got the idea that people are increasingly interested in this idea of provenance, where their foods come from, and maybe some of it's coming from the UK.

Check for you here.

True or false? Our food choices have minimal impact on the environment.

Is that true or false? And I need you to explain your answers in a moment.

And if you said false, why was that? The answer we had was as follows: importing food from further afield by plane increases food miles.

This affects the carbon footprint of the crop as air freight causes 40 to 50 times the CO2 emissions of sea freight.

But, of course, even sea freight, if you're transporting food in refrigerated containers, is using energy all of the time.

That's clearly going to have an impact on the environment.

Now, consumers who are more aware of the impacts of their food choices and can afford to shop around will seek food produced in the UK, as we've seen from that local produce example, our local produce menu.

In 2016, about half of all food eaten in the UK was grown in the UK, but by 2023 the UK produced 58% of its own food.

The Red Tractor label is another interesting kind of illustration of how provenance and people taking an interest in UK food is delivered within perhaps the context of the supermarket.

So if you've looked at food in the supermarket and it's got the Red Tractor label on it, this is a label or a logo that's been used for 25 years to show British consumers that meat has been produced in the UK with higher standards of animal welfare and lower environmental impacts.

And, of course, the UK was, you know, leading the EU when we were in the EU and one of the leading countries in the world in terms of, you know, real interest in animal welfare of our food.

Thanet Earth is an agribusiness in Kent in the southeast of England.

And we can see here an aerial view of Thanet Earth in Kent.

Those gigantic greenhouses which are used to supply the UK with salad veg.

Agribusinesses don't all involve greenhouses, but they do require large amounts of investment to set up in order to produce food on a very large scale.

These huge greenhouses, Thanet Earth, are artificially heated and lit during the colder months, using combined heat and power generators on site and some solar power.

The agribusiness uses technology to control the environment in which its cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes grow.

So remember, we were talking about that huge amount of investment.

What are they spending that money on? Well, hydroponics with plants grown in mineral wool and a very carefully scientifically measured and tested liquid feed is added to that mineral wool for the plants to grow on.

Introduced insects bred to prey on pests.

So this business is employing biotechnology.

And more recently, they're using robots to pollinate tomatoes, which apparently is more efficient than using bees.

Economies of scale mean that this business can recoup its investment over time.

So a huge amount of money is spent in food production, but that money can be recouped over time because of the just sheer scale of the production.

Look at the size of those greenhouses.

The growing season has been much extended compared to the average for outdoor crops in the southeast of England.

Remember, we're talking about Kent.

Tomatoes are harvested across all 12 months of the year.

Can you harvest tomatoes for 12 months in your garden? Don't think so.

Cucumbers and peppers are harvested February to October and light pollution from glasshouses is a local issue during the winter months.

So I suppose that's ones like fly in the ointment in that we have complaints from people locally saying, "Well these artificially lit greenhouses are actually creating light pollution in the local area." Here's a question.

What's the carbon footprint of fruit and veg grown in artificially heated and lit greenhouses? Good question.

Well, the agribusiness reports that peppers and cucumbers grown in its greenhouses have a lower carbon footprint than alternative sources.

Perhaps those transported from Europe at that time of year and its tomatoes have an equivalent carbon footprint to UK-grown tomatoes grown outside.

So in this instance, perhaps the use of the solar power and the sheer efficiency and scale of production has meant that the business has been able to keep the carbon footprint of the fruit and vegetables quite quite low.

Which of these are positive impacts of agribusiness in general in the UK? Remember that not all agribusinesses involve glass.

Have a read through those and restart when you want to check your answer.

And if you said, well, B and C are positive impacts, you'd be absolutely right.

Greenhouse complexes have extended the growing season and food is produced on a large scale.

So could mean lower costs.

So remember, we were talking about organic farming earlier.

However, agribusiness might be producing food at a cheaper rate for us, the consumer.

So practise tasks for you here linked to our second question, how do our food choices affect the environment? Firstly, suggest what the environmental impacts are of the UK's year-round demand for seasonal fruit.

Use this graph and your own knowledge.

And I have a second task for you as well.

Do you agree with Sam's opinion? Discuss it with a partner.

And Sam's opinion is local produce is better for the planet, but it really limits what's on the menu.

Okay, so pause the video now you've got your task to do, the first task and you've got this discussion to do.

So pause the video now and restart it when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, how did you get on with that first suggest question? Suggest what the environmental impacts are of the UK's year-round demand for seasonal food.

Your answer might include some of the following.

To meet off-season demand, fruit is often imported from other countries with some flown in by air, associated with high carbon emissions.

Cold storage also adds to the carbon footprint of foods.

Additionally, importing fruit from water-scarce regions constrain local water resources, while intensive farming practises abroad may lead to deforestation, biodiversity loss and pollution.

UK off-season production relies on artificially heated and lit greenhouses requiring large amounts of energy.

Although thinking about our example there, renewable sources of energy may be used.

Overall, the demand-driven system for year-round availability of seasonal food significantly increases the environmental impact of fruit and vegetables consumed in the UK.

Well done if you got that kind of level of detail in your answer really.

We've got a whole range of different environmental impacts.

Secondly, did you agree with Sam's opinion? You might have discussed the following.

So buying local reduces the carbon footprint of the food we eat.

So clearly it is gonna be better for the planet.

It can also mean fresher foods that might be better for you and fewer preservatives and less packaging.

Another environmental link there.

However, relying on local produce limits variety, especially in countries like the UK with a relatively short growing season, or perhaps it need not limit choice.

So maybe the converse view, given innovative techniques of some UK agribusinesses.

For example, cultivation of fruit and vegetables under glass.

So you might have disagreed with Sam.

In summary, what have we been looking at then? Changing demand for food in the UK creates opportunities and challenges.

And we can see here the origin of the UK's food supply, a lot of it coming from abroad.

There is growing demand for high-value food exports from lower income countries, seasonal food all year, and organic produce.

There is also a smaller but significant move towards local food sourcing to reduce the carbon footprint of our food.

There is also a trend towards agribusiness in the UK.

So we looked at a number of different themes there.

Well done for working hard on that lesson.

There was a lot to cover, wasn't there? And I look forward to seeing you again soon.