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Environmental Issues By Alan J Hartley |
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Home Grown |
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Over the last couple of decades the population of Great Britain seems to have acquired a taste for more exotic fruits. It must have started with cheap package holidays and air travel abroad to countries where the restaurants served interestingly different meals. Tourists retuned home with newly acquired tastes and so gradually foreign restaurants followed and established themselves in the UK to cater for the changing eating habits. Small wholesalers and importers developed bringing in a wealth of raw foodstuffs with which to supply the new style restaurants so they could prepare their exotic dishes. Then the large Super Markets decided to get in on the act and now the range of imported fruits on display in any fruit and vegetable shop can be quite bewildering.
Not only do people seem to be growing more vegetables, but there seems to be a wider range of vegetable seeds on sale to cater for the publics ever growing taste for the exotic. It wasn't so many years ago that you would never have seen vegetable plants such as Peppers, Sweet Corn or Aubergines on sale in garden centres. The same seems to be happening with fruit as well. 20 years ago Bay trees were the new plant that everyone wanted, but more recently Blueberries have become very popular. Kiwi plants along with Cranberries, Figs and even Gojii berries can be seen on sale more and more as well as older fruits that are making a come back. These include the true Quince, Medlars and Mulberries. |
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Some
foreign fruit such as Bananas and some vegetables have been imported for
decades by ships where transportation is relatively efficient with low
costs. In many cases the fruit is picked before it is ripe so that it
can make the journey without deteriorating. This is the case with
Bananas which are completely green when they are picked and start their
travels. Much of the “Green” imported goods cannot be treated like
this though and so needs to be imported quickly to prevent the cargo
from perishing. Airlines are going out of business as the World Wide
recession bites and import costs with the ever-rising price of fuel are
escalating anyway. Also, times are changing and people are starting to
think about the Environment and the huge impact that all these imports
are having.
In
2008 commercial seed producing/selling companies reported that vegetable
seed sales showed an incredible growth that far outstripped that of
flower seeds as the public suddenly decided to grow their own
vegetables. Some of this is undoubtedly due to the growing enthusiasm
for healthy organic food as well that seems to be gaining momentum
throughout the Nation. Allotments have suddenly become the in thing to
have as people try to produce their own healthy vegetables.