One issue we face as a vegetable industry is how to make our products exciting or even ‘sexy’ to consumers. When compared to the huge branding and marketing budgets available for many food items, it is not surprising that fresh produce (most of which is sold in plain, own-label packaging or loose) often fails to attract its fair share of the weekly grocery shop.
Some items have a definite advantage. It can be argued that asparagus is still unique and (just about) seasonal enough to create a flurry of interest in the spring, and berries remain both popular and convenient. However, for many staple products, such as brassicas, potatoes and carrots, getting them seen as anything other than a cheap, staple commodity is an uphill battle.
It is therefore interesting that the five largest carrot growers in the UK have come together to promote the 3 October as National Carrot Awareness Day. Whether the new date in our calendars will become more than a food magazine copy-editor’s useful reminder remains to be seen, but growers of other crops are likely to look on with interest. Occasional initiatives such as Pea Week have been tried before and while they attract column inches, it is harder to gauge their effect on consumption. However, if National Carrot Awareness Day manages to highlight the time, care and attention that goes into producing carrots to the great British public, then it will have been a worthwhile exercise.
Grower of root crops like carrots, parsnips and potatoes are also facing increased environmental pressures. This year’s wet autumn and winter has highlighted the increased weather uncertainty all growers face, and crops which require considerable soil movement and which are harvested during what is often the wettest part of the year have the potential to cause considerable damage to soil structure, not to mention the financial risks associated with difficult or impossible harvesting and other issues such as soil loss from fields, flooding and increased energy use.
Given these issues it is perhaps not surprising that some larger growers are finding it harder to obtain land for these crops (something which is also influenced by other factors, such as landowners signing up for thee SFI), or are being advised against growing them altogether by organisations such as the Environment Agency. Growers are already working hard to address many of these concerns, including developing new, more robust varieties, expanding production to new areas and reducing cultivations and tillage. As always, there is a balancing act and with some UK suppliers already warning that crops like carrots, where the UK has been self-sufficient, will need to return to strategic imports at certain times of year to reduce the production risks, it is important that we do not export production to solve an issues which could be overcome using different techniques.
Whether we will ever reach a scenario where crop production is caried out entirely indoors using controlled environment agriculture techniques remains to be seen. If we do, the disconnect between the consumer and where their food comes from is only likely to increase further, making initiatives such as National Carrot Awareness Day even more important.
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