Jan 062010
 

The UK has unveiled a 20-year food strategy that would include making land  available for people to grow their own food.

See, it’s not as far fetched as some people might think.

Part of the plan entails facilitating cooperation between local landowners and community groups to make land available temporarily for food cultivation.

Rising consumer demand in the UK for free-range food has led to a greater production of such food. The UK is now 80 per cent self-sufficient in free-range eggs, compared to 16 per cent a decade ago.

Well, what is Malaysia’s food plan? Anyone knows? Are we going to sit back and allow vegetable prices to keep soaring? Or let MNCs and hypermarkets seize control of the entire food chain from seeds to retailing? Or simply import what we need from Thailand, China, Australia and the United States?

Shouldn’t we be encouraging more Malaysians to grow their own food while protecting our agricultural land?

See BBC report here.

  12 Responses to “UK unveils “grow your own food” plan”

  1. We are doomed and why will the BN gormen come up with such a scheme unless of course it can be pir(v)atised and someone allegedly makes a huge chunk and then it will be more expensive to grow your own vegetables, after 10-20 years of looting we will be back to square one

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    • Ai yoh MyBlog,

      Have you heard of the RM10 billion allocated to Khazanah under the second economic stimulus plan, but till date still cannot be accounted for, even though a letter to that effect was written to Khazanah in December last year? Do not know whether the report is credible.

      Also, the latest report today, it was (alleged) that our Honourable Prime Minister, leader of BN, may be questioned by the French authorities with regards to the purchase of the submarines…, as reported. Let us hope the reports are not true,as it is too scary.

      6 days into the new year, 6 new blockbusters!

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  2. Malaysia prefers to grow artificial (electronic) chips rather than sweet potato chips. Even my grass in my garden is artificial grass. Real grass will not grow.

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  3. With the price of greens so expensive these days, growing your own vegetables is no longer a hobby but an economic necessity.

    If not because of the H5N1 scare, I would consider rearing my own poultry too.

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  4. Primitive works for retirees.

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  5. My late father lamented the fact that in his native state of Kedah, so much agri land ended up in developer’s hands and Malaysia basically lost its edge in agri. Loss of land is one thing, but the loss of knowledge and experience as the younger generation migrated and ended up in factories (which was touted as “progress” by some 30 years ago and still seems to be a benchmark now). All this while, Thailand developed their industry without sacrificing their focus on their strength, agriculture. Meanwhile, our industry has stagnated, and our agri seems to be the flavour of the day with the last two administrations. The bandaid approach again. *sigh*

    Are we still strategically able to produce most of our foodstuff as envisaged before? Or has that aim gone down the drain like many others?

    As the Malays would say, yang dikejar tak dapat yang dikendong berciciran!

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  6. It would be really good if Malaysians can grow some of their own food. Not only would it help reduce our food bills but we would also be able to consume healthier food products by reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides.

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  7. Rather than counting ringgit which is losing its value fast daily and getting senile like some die hard Gerakan supporter here, organic or hydroponic gardening is a good option when I retire in the future.

    It’s a gainful hobby, other than playing golf. :)

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  8. The way the UK economy is going, I expect this plan will be followed by a “make your own shoes” plan, followed quickly by a “burn your own floorboards to stay warm” plan.

    I can laugh – all my savings are in a small UK bank. It was a large UK bank last year.

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  9. If I brought them here and stored them under the tiled floor Anil, they’d take up much less space than they would have last year!

    The UK is in an awkward place with ‘food security’. It’s a rock in a cold sea, which freezes for several months of a year. It was easy in the old days, they could just shoot some brown people in foreign lands and guarantee year-round supply of fresh fruit and veg. Those days are gone. Well, they should have the last couple of decades have been a bit embarrassing on that front.

    I fear for the UK’s future. It really doesn’t have much in the way of material resources, nor does it have as easily extractable or reliable renewable energy as Malaysia does – and not nearly in the same quantity. Looking into the distant future, I wonder what it will export in exchange for food.

    Perhaps one day in the not too distant future I will find myself working as a maid for a wealthy Malaysian so that my friends in the UK can afford to eat!

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