Going Green: Small changes now mean we won’t be so reliant on food imports for our family food security

With Valentine’s Day and Easter this year already big chocolate buying holidays, the sweet treat we all love is getting pricier. In fact, chocolate prices are at a record high. Hershey’s – the big chocolate company in the US is passing on the price hikes to consumers while Cadbury’s in the UK is shrinking products.

When it comes to chocolate, 70 percent of the UKs global consumption comes from West Africa which – due to poor climate and bean disease – has struggled with yields.

Sugar prices – another ingredient in chocolate have risen seven percent in the last 12 months too due to poor weather condidtions. The UK imports around 46 percent of the food it imports at a cost of around £48 billion so our food security is incredibly important.

The UK produces over 50 per cent of vegetables consumed domestically, but only 16 per cent of the fruit we consume.

With the necessity to import so much though, comes vulnerability.

Olive oil prices for example have soared in recent years with floods, fires, poor harvests and labour costs all contributing to the spiralling cost. In Spain in fact, olive oil was the most stolen item in supermarkets in eight of its seventeen regions recently showing food security is an issue across Europe and not just the UK.