New trade deals miles away from saving the planet
Oh dear! Is it just me who thinks the Government's new trade deals are worrying?
We have now agreed to send and receive goods to and from 45 countries south of the Equator. It's 6,000 miles to China and more to Pacific countries, each trip.
What's happened to food miles, our carbon footprint and saving the planet? There's so much wrong with this, where to begin? Containers on huge oil-burning tankers, or planes racking up air miles and polluting the atmosphere. Then there's food security, where and how it has been produced and delivered to our supermarkets.
For so long Government has been championing sustainability and food security by growing more of our own.
Back in 2006, Tony Blair and the Red Tractor challenged supermarkets to "give more shelf space to local foods", to "improve the industry's environmental, social and economic performance".
Since then farmers have striven to rise to this challenge, despite also being told to grow more trees and flood their fields to reduce rivers flooding. So how does the Government square this circle of global trade and local food?
Does the right hand knows what the left is doing, or even care? Doesn't look like it.
Rosemary Allen is a retired livestock farmer living near Ellesmere
