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Self-Sufficiency in Style 

National self-sufficiency

Britain's food supply.

We can just about remember food rationing at the end of WW2 and the endless stories of the country nearly being starved into submission by the U-boat blockade.

We see our island as either overcrowded and built-over or, in the case of the mountains, beautiful but unproductive.

Britain has imported a large proportion of her food for many generations.

We had, and have, enough coal for hundreds of years, but we decided to cease coal mining and import our needs from Poland.

We had enough oil for many years, but decided to sell much on the world market. Now we are net importers.

 Exporting the problems and the possibilities by importing.

We would now call ourselves short of energy. If we are, it is entirely the result of choosing to be short.

There was plenty and, probably still is, plenty of domestic sources that we choose not to exploit.

 A fresh and unexpected view.

From seeing it as a crowded concreted city and suburbia, we started to see a green and pleasant land, surprisingly undeveloped and uncrowded.

A return from a dry and brown Mediterranean by air to a lush and fertile land gave most of us a new perspective. Even today, flying back home, you hear the same comment again and again.

"There is still plenty of countryside, when you look from the air."

Not that we did much with the information.

For hundreds of years, farmers have complained about competition from low cost imports.

They seemed a small group anxious to preserve their business interests, as indeed they were and are.

Although many were not so wealthy and just desperate to preserve their patrimony in a rapidly changing world.

Vociferous, sometimes wealthy, but not representative.

However, all things change and it is time to revisit old preconceptions.

Experience is worth a hundred government reports.

Could Britain be more self-sufficient in food?

Should Britain be more self-sufficient in food?

Efficient enough.

In the uplands, sheep are the main activity, and things remain much as they have been for centuries.

In the lowlands, farming is largely arable, and high tech: often monoculture, with factory farming driving out the last few livestock traditionalists.

Pigs and poultry have been leaving the barns and sheds and returning to the fields and meadows for some years.

Some commercial feed.

 But Britain has too many people and too little land to become self-sufficient in food.

Or does she?

Actually, she doesn't.

Depending how you calculate it, we have less than one person per acre.

With exceptions.

There is more than enough to supply the traditional diet for her people, with the exception of  tropical items such as tea and coffee.

Indeed, it is perfectly possible to provide many exotic items, albeit at a sometimes unrealistic cost in buildings, heating and labour.

Experience is worth a hundred government reports.

Five acres can produce enough food and drink, with considerable variety and high quality, for maybe a minimum of eight people. Three of these would probably be required to tend the land and livestock, leaving whatever adults remain out of the eight to non agricultural employment.

Given some hedgerows, such an area can also be substantially self-sufficient in renewable heating fuel.

Even genuine English oranges.

Britain has more than one acre for each person!

There is more than enough.

"I'm a stockbroker and this is only my weekend chill-out gear"

Of course, nothing is that simple. We do not want or wish to emulate medieval peasants.

But the fact remains that there is enough land for Britain to feed its people, if she wanted to.

Most don't want to farm and have not wanted to for many many decades.

Most also want the consumer goods that a modern cash economy provides in abundance, much imported.

But things are changing, more of us want less of cheaper consumables and more of a better life-style.

But there is a severe shortage of houses with land and what there are, are very expensive.

 Not everyone's scene.

The "flight from the land" that began centuries ago, in Britain, is partly reversible.

The change may well be under way.

Farmers are rubbing their hands together at the current prospect of higher prices, but experience suggests that they will see little of any increase in prices.

The supermarket chains will be no less determined to pay as little as possible and the farmers still as vulnerable to the market price and cheaper imports as ever.

Agricultural land in Britain is actually surprisingly cheap. It has hardly moved in twenty-five years.

Land with planning permission and small parcels with an existing building have risen at a rapid rate.

The increase stems largely from Britain's planning laws. They create a shortage of land with living accommodation in the country.

Shortage of smallholdings drives prices ever upwards.

Look no further.

Government policy can change as quickly as governments and there are signs of change.

The writer knows of arable land in a rural part of the South of England, with absolutely no prospect of planning permission for a building, and offered with a covenant forbidding it, to a neighbouring house owner, at £25000 for half an acre.

The multiple for land actually with planning permission for house building is much higher. There is a two or three tiered market for land.

Farming land which cannot be developed is devalued, land that can be attached to a house or developed is prohibitively expensive.

The maths defeats most, but it is the result of planning policy.

So, where does this leave the aspiring self-sufficiency wannabe?

There are plenty of farmers that realise the tax efficiency of selling small parcels on a year by year basis and who would like a relaxation of the planning laws.

The farmer with land that will not get planning permission has probably seen no increase in its value for many years, despite real estate boosting, and the position is unlikely to improve unless planning laws are loosened..

He may well wish to sell off small parcels especially at the premium that will be available from looser restrictions on planning. It is an attractive proposition to sell small parcels, year by year, at a premium price.

Far more attractive than selling the whole farm, or borrowing from the bank.

It is mainly seen in expanding towns with additional estates of small houses, but loosening will go further and allow individual buildings in rural areas.

Farming will gain an immediate cash injection in tax efficient portions and smallholders may well get the chance of house and land at more affordable prices.

There are plenty of potential purchasers.

Where does this leave Britain?

Exodus from the cities.

.....with a lower requirement for imported foods. Even if smallholders don't have a stall at the gate, their demand will evaporate and much of their production will leak into replacing the supermarket product.

Farmers will be selling small parcels of land at a premium and providing services to the newcomers for things that they cannot do for themselves.

Green profits.

Oppressive regimes.

Rural development as long been restricted, often in terms of "protecting the countryside." Not always a motive that stands close scrutiny.

Throughout the Western world, large and corporate is favoured against small and personal, note this horrifying story from the United States, which, alas, is even more typical of Britain.

But sentiment can change to be in favour of supporting personal self-sufficiency as a long road to greater self-reliance at a national level.

Will it happen?

Why not?

The unsatisfied demand for smallholdings at affordable prices will eventually have to be met, just as the demand for small affordable houses in or near the cities is now being addressed.

...looking into the future

- from Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner.

July, 2007