Stalker was watching the very interesting food programme Jimmy’s Global Harvest which has been going out on Thursday evenings on BBC2.
The programme was following the production of winter potatoes for the UK market, the economics of the production and the food miles involved.
The spuds were grown out in Egypt, and very fine looking spuds they were too. The bit that piquéd Stalker’s interest was the post harvesting use of Irish peat to help transport the spuds to the UK in a moist and organic environment.
Jimmy Doherty’s programme is unerringly interesting, and in this instance too, provoked a lot of food for thought.
As he says -“You can’t treat agriculture like the car industry. Farmers are very efficient, but they need backing, because they’re the ones looking after the countryside and under pressure to produce food at a price we want to pay.”
