If we act now, the British economy can go from red to black with greens.
The recovery from the crash of 2008 has been a mixed bag. Seven years later, The Spectator is optimistic, claiming that David Cameron has performed a “jobs miracle” by ensuring that two million more people are employed. On the other hand, The Economist is calling the recovery “strange” while The Guardian has an even bleaker outlook. They claim that the recovery, and the “jobs miracle”, is based on low pay, zero hours contracts, and inequality. Moreover, the jobs miracle may well be starting to slow, because in the March to May period of this year unemployment rose for the first time in two years, by 15,000 people.
So what does fruit and vegetable production have to do with any of this? Well, quite a lot actually.
For a start, the UK is now exporting record amounts of fruit and vegetable juices and this seems to be part of a general trend in Britain’s increase in exports. Exportation creates jobs, and jobs help to boost an economy. As previously mentioned, critics of the current recovery have claimed that though jobs have increased in quantity, the quality of them is very low.
More fruit and vegetable production could provide the UK with the higher-paying full-time jobs that it needs. According to a pay survey in 2014, the average farmer earns over £25,000 a year, only one in 10 are part time, and nine out of 10 would recommend the career choice.
The fruit and vegetable boom has clear potential, which is probably why it has had backing from the private sector. Aldi, whose profits have soared recently, have announced their plan to team up with local farmers in a bid to put more farmer-friendly vegetables on our shelves. Strong private enterprises are helping other strong private enterprises and, crucially, they are creating decent jobs as they do it.
The public sector is also supporting this trend. In 2014, the government urged shoppers to buy British fruit and vegetables to help the economy. However, skip forward to 2015 and the British Medical Association (BMA) are asking the government to support this produce-driven recovery with more than words. They are recommending a tax on sugary drinks that will directly fund cheaper fruit and vegetables.
Cheaper fruit and vegetables means more sales, which means profitable fruit and vegetable production, and more jobs, which means a healthier economy and, what is more, a healthier population. Local farmers may not feel intimately tied to the success or failure of our economy, but they are. During his 1992 election campaign, Bill Clinton famously had a poster in his war room that read “it’s the economy, stupid”. In 2015, the British government would do well to hang up their own poster that reads “it’s the produce economy, Osborne”.
No comments yet