[Tin Monkey]

I was listening to a programme on R4 the other day concerning farming and food production in the UK. They were discussing the issues of being able to feed the world and the way that farming in the UK isn't really making the most of what we have. This isn't the farmers' fault.

Anyway, one suggestion was that better use could be made farming in the UK if we worked on a global level. For example, rather than trying to farm crops in Africa, where it's hard to arable farm due to the climate, you farm nothing but arable crops in countries where the climate is more suitable e.g. Western Europe for example. That would mean that we'd farm hardly any animals (that would be done elsewhere) and just grow cereals and other such crops. If all the countries worked together and produced the food stuffs that they were best suited to, then this would result in much higher levels of production.

Maybe if we followed this model we'd increase food production without having to resort to harmful GM modification? Just an idea, but one that would change the landscape of the British countryside in enormous ways.