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Britain at risk from reliance on imported fruit and vegetables

Posted on 8 June 2020

Professor Tony Heron quoted in The Times

Professor Tony Heron image

An opinion piece by Professor Tony Heron, Bob Doherty, and Philip Garnett called Vulnerability of the United Kingdom’s food supply chains exposed by COVID-19 in Nature Food has been picked by the national press.

The article says Britain has become “dangerously dependent” on imported fruit and vegetables from a small number of European countries.

The Times has picked on this article in Nature Food and run an article  "Britain at risk from reliance on imported fruit and vegetables" quoting Professor Tony Heron saying "that it was a matter of "blind-luck" that one of the EU farming regions upon which Britain relies on had not been badly affected by Covid-19. Tony goes on to say "We have this idea that our food system is global and it's not - and it's blind-luck that the virus hotspots have occurred outside of the agricultural areas that feed the UK"

The national and trade press have also picked up on this article:

inews

HorticultureWeek

The local press has run a number of articles over the weekend about this topic too:

The Yorkshire Post

The York Press