"Our research shows that some grown-ups still really need to brush up on their foodie knowledge.
"It is worrying to think that there are people out there who believe types of apples to be potatoes and that well known varieties of British grown spuds are unheard of.
"There is plenty of information available, such as our new potato classification guide, so they can brush up on their facts."
Goodness. I didn't even know we had a Potato Council, let alone that it had time to produce potato classification guides. It sounds like the sort of thing that the Coalition would have abolished by now, like the UK film council, or alternatively like a rather dodgy novelty band from the 1980s. I Googled it, and discovered that it does exist, or at least it has a website. It is a division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, and is committed to supporting the British potato industry. It has an annual budget of £6m which is raised through a levy, 80% from growers and 20% from buyers. It conducts research into storage of potatoes at its own research centre, and produces reports on all sorts of things, from diseases to exporting seed potatoes to Libya, though that one was dated 2006 and things may have changed a bit since then. And it has a mission to sustain demand for potatoes, including regional Ambassadors. Over the past twenty years there has been a 40% drop in consumption of potatoes in the British home, so they have their work cut out. The decline is coming at the younger end of the market, who prefer rice and pasta.
Who'd have thought it? Our neighbouring lettuce farmer has just grown a crop of potatoes in the field next to us. They were harvesting them a couple of weeks ago, but I never imagined the great infrastructure underpinning the production of the simple spud. I hope Dave feels he is getting his money's worth from his levy. I can't see copies of the new potato classification guide flying off the shelves in Waterstones, and fear the Potato Council may need to intensify its efforts if it wants to reverse the decline in sales.
By the time I'd finished with potatoes I was curious about the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. They too have a website, and are funded by industry levies, with sectors covering horticulture, beef and lamb, pigs, milk, and cereals and oilseeds, as well as potatoes. In total they represent about three quarters of total UK agricultural output, which left me scratching my head as to what the other quarter consisted of. They support research and development (R&D) and are dangerously given to jargon, undertaking farm level knowledge transfer (KT) and knowledge exchange (KE) activity. I don't immediately see the difference between the two. Maybe it is a transfer if it is one way, and an exchange if you get some knowledge back in return.
Lettuces fall within horticulture, and when I searched for the word 'lettuce' a long list of research publications came up. Pest control is a big thing in lettuces, but hydroponics and the measurement of nitrate levels in lettuces get a look in. There are links to growers' associations, and it turns out that there is a British Leafy Salads Association, which exists with the primary aim of increasing UK consumption of leafy salads. Our neighbouring lettuce farm is a member. They have a conference coming up in mid November. Early sessions focus on the core staples of pest control and nitrates, but later on they move on to look at the impact of changing social trends on salad consumption, and engaging consumers with leafy salads. It will be a chance for them all to get together and compare horror stories. The website tries to portray a positive image of salads, with quite a sweet review of different lettuce types, and I couldn't find any industry figures about production and sales in 2012, but I think it has been a year of crops rotting in the fields, and consumers not wanting to buy salad if it manages to make it as far as the shops.
Next time you are buying a bag of mixed leaves, take a moment to consider the great hidden world that underlies its final appearance in the supermarket of your choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment