Total UK veg consumption needs to rise by 33 billion portions a year to decrease the nation’s risk of premature death and inject new impetus into the farming sector, figures from the Peas Please campaign indicate.
According to the campaign’s calculations, even if the UK maintained the current ratio of veg that it imports, meeting the government’s guidance on veg would mean a significant market opportunity for British farmers amounting to an estimated 18 billion more portions per year. Currently, low consumption of veg and pulses contributes to 20,000 premature deaths every year.
A new fund, Veg Power, has been set up raise money for an ad campaign to inspire kids to eat more veg and to support their parents.
Pease Please points out that fruit and veg production in the UK gives an annual output of £2 billion, double that of pork farming. Horticulture also boasts minimal dependency on EU subsidies with only 11 per cent of farm business income presently coming from subsidies, compared to 87 per cent for cereal farmers. Yet in the last 30 years, the area planted to veg in the UK has declined by 26 per cent and Brexit is threatening uncertainty on an already strained sector. Self-sufficiency in veg has fallen from 83 per cent 30 years ago to 54 per cent.
Early contributors to the fund - which claims to be the first-ever marketing board for veg backed by growers, chefs, doctors - include the NFU and AHDB. The fund promises to use innovative techniques and impactful digital campaigns to transform the way the public views veg.
Anna Taylor from Peas Please said: “Increasing veg advertising and driving up demand for veg will benefit our health, growers, retailers and parents. As we write a new agriculture policy for Britain we must put our production of healthy food centre stage.”
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