Fishing families demonstrating by the Thames in London during the Brexit referendum campaign, June 2016. Photo Workers.
In 1978 the CPBML published a pamphlet titled Food for the People!. We quoted experts in agricultural research who argued that Britain certainly could be self-sufficient in food production, and had a highly efficient agricultural sector.
In the intervening years, capitalism has distorted the economy to keep Britain reliant on imported food, prioritising profit over food security.
For the reality of the need for food security – that is, self-sufficiency – the pamphlet looked to the lessons of the Second World War when food production was a question of national survival. Afterwards, and as a consequence, British agriculture became highly mechanized and productive.
Yet even by the 1970s we were already importing over 50 per cent of our food and the importance of self-sufficiency had been forgotten. The pandemic in 2020 was a sharp reminder, which governments since try to ignore.
In 1978 we were five years into membership of what was then the EEC (now the EU). This led, as many had predicted, to higher food prices, thanks to the Common Agricultural Policy. Controls from Brussels on what could and could not be produced led to the infamous butter mountains and wine lakes – and the destruction of British fruit orchards and much of our fishing industry.
The pamphlet, with a recent postscript, is available online at https://www.cpbml.org.uk/about/publications. It’s worth a read to reflect on what’s changed since then and what hasn’t.
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