Crop to Shop

[Steve the Gas]

BBC1 7.30 pm

Pretty obvious what it is

[Mallard]

9:30pm, I've opened iPlayer in a new tab and its already available! Me no telly!
So I'm gonna watch it; see you all later!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... t_Secrets/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AL37]

I found it very interesting and to be honest found the bit about Egyption spuds shocking. Seed potatoes from Scotland, shipped to Egypt to be grown in the dessert. Watered from a non sustainable underground water source. Peat shipped from Ireland for packaging then the whole lot shipped back to UK.
Absolutely mad.
Maybe not this year, but next I am hopeing to grow enough of my own spuds to last right through the year.

[p.penn]

I grew my first spuds last year. Cooked the first lot and they were so disappointing that I am not bothering this year. Sorry went

I will try to catch the programme on iplayer as I must say it sounds fascinating.

[wendy]

Same here Al.
We don't eat many potatoes, Helen, so I hope the few I have will be OK for us.
Wendy

[Mallard]

About half my plot is marked out for potatoes; but what was the name of the stuff they grow peppers with in the Netherlands?
Sounds ideal for greenhouse tomatoes!

[AL37]

Are you talking about the rock wool Mallard?

[Mallard]

Are you talking about the rock wool Mallard?

That's the stuff! Looked it up and found a site selling it at non-astronomical prices. Be interesting to try a few tomato plants!

[Stig]

I was unhappy with the programme's inference that air-freighting food out of Kenya to the wealthy countries of Europe was somehow a good thing. Carbon footprint aside, Kenya is right next door to Ethiopia and Somalia, and not too far away from Mozambique, Zambia and all those other Southern African countries where people routinely starve to death.

And don't get me started on the idiots in Holland using gigawatts of power to grow peppers in greenhouses (generated mainly from burning natural gas - we should at least be thankful it's not coal!) I use dozens of the things, but will definately by having a go at growing some at home now.

[lancashire lass]

I was unhappy with the programme's inference that air-freighting food out of Kenya to the wealthy countries of Europe was somehow a good thing. Carbon footprint aside, Kenya is right next door to Ethiopia and Somalia, and not too far away from Mozambique, Zambia and all those other Southern African countries where people routinely starve to death.

I think you are missing the point that without the export of said crops, the country does not have much of any other income, and the mentioned air freight is actually passenger flights out of the country, that is, it is not a flight solely for flying out the crop so should not be an increase in the carbon footprint (I'll stand corrected if proved wrong on this particular instance but that's how I understood it from the programme). I also look at it another way - the people are earning a living so are not relying on charity. THAT is a good thing as it gives those people pride in what they are doing, and something to strive for. If there is a market out there to buy their produce, then they have my congratulations for exploiting it instead of doing nothing.

As for the mentioned countries where there is starvation, they all seem to have governments with political agendas which have little regard for their own people's well-being so how is it Kenya's responsibility to feed them when they don't have a lot for themselves? Where natural disaster such as drought occurs, then it requires world wide assistance not rely on one isolated country that happens to be a neighbour. No doubt there would be a strain on that country anyway when people try to migrate away from the problem.