BRITAIN has a serious, yet largely hidden, food security problem — it doesn’t feed itself. Growing about only half of what is requiredd to meet our needs, we are so far from the self-sufficient good life that if the food system was a bank, it would be bankrupt.

In this book, Tim Lang explores this “dangerous insecurity” within our food system and denounces Britain's imperial tradition of assuming that others will provide for us. This country's yawning trade gap in foodstuffs was £24 billion in 2017 and we’re experiencing a dramatic decline in native production.

Fruit and vegetable cultivation could, and should, be increasing, but only 12 per cent of the fruit we consume is currently grown here.