Food system transformation models often rest on us all eating more fruit and veg and less meat and dairy. But even if consumers were persuaded to choose a more plant-based diet, our supply of fresh produce is on a knife edge: Mounting pressures from Brexit to supermarkets, and labour to energy costs, mean many UK growers have left glasshouses, fields, or orchards unplanted or unsown for two years now.
In addition, we rely heavily on imports (around 80% for fruit, 45% for veg) from countries that are projected to suffer large-scale drying and other climate-related shocks and stresses. Add to that an ever more fractured world with traditional trade routes disrupted, and there is a big case for increasing our own domestic production. But how? What are the challenges? How can research and academia contribute?
In this second part of two webinars on fruit and veg security, we focus in on UK fruit production with Ali Capper who grows apples and hops on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border and is the chair of British Apples & Pears, a grower-funded apple and pear trade group. British apples are our national fruit, yet British-grown apples represent only 40% of all the apples sold in the UK.
You can also watch Part 1 on Vegetable and Salad Crops with Lee Stiles, the secretary of Lea Valley Growers Association, a group of growers who produce 75% of Britain’s cucumbers, sweet peppers & aubergines (around 500 million!), plus tomatoes, lettuces and herbs in 450 acres of glasshouses.
About Ali:
Ali Capper wears many hats and is a well-known voice in British horticulture. She grows eating and cider apples at her family farm on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border and is the chair of British Apples & Pears, a grower-funded apple and pear trade group.
Ali also sits on the NFU’s horticulture and potatoes board, which she was chair of from 2016-2022. She has contributed to the government’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, and regularly appears in national media and the farming and horticulture press.
She is also a director of the Oxford Farming Conference, Director of British Hop Association (she also grows hops), chair of Wye Hops, Chair of Horticulture Crop Protection Ltd, a Nuffield Scholar, and non-executive chair of rural insurer, NFU Mutual.
About the webinar series:
This webinar is part of a monthly series run by AFN Network+ which explores net zero in the UK agri-food system with leading movers and shakers. Expect deep and varied insight from across the sector, including farmers, scientists, policy analysts, community leaders, retailers, politicians, businesses and health professionals. The series is put together by Jez Fredenburgh, our Knowledge Exchange Fellow, and Prof Neil Ward, AFN Co-lead and professor of rural geography at the University of East Anglia.
