BBC Learnings · Section 20

The future of food

Many of us don't think twice about where the food in our kitchen comes from. One trip to the supermarket

Level: B1 · 107 sentences

Transcript

  1. Many of us don't think twice about where the food
  2. in our kitchen comes from. One trip to the supermarket
  3. and we can buy anything we want,
  4. whether that's fruit grown in South America,
  5. tomatoes from Spain or rice flown in from Asia.
  6. Do you know where the food you buy comes from, Neil?
  7. I try to pay attention and buy stuff that's
  8. locally produced but actually sometimes I don't really look.
  9. How about you?
  10. I actually have a calendar on my kitchen wall
  11. which tells me which fruits and vegetables
  12. are grown at what times of year.
  13. The reality is that the supply
  14. of fresh food to the UK is fragile.
  15. The UK imports around 40% of its food
  16. and this supply chain can easily be disrupted by wars,
  17. shortages and, increasingly, by climate change.
  18. In fact, the UK Government's Department for Environment, Food
  19. and Rural Affairs recently reported on the importance of food security
  20. the term for having a reliable
  21. enough supply of affordable, healthy food to feed everyone.
  22. In this episode we'll be investigating
  23. the issues affecting food production in the UK.
  24. As usual we'll learn some useful new vocabulary
  25. But first, of course, Pippa, I have a quiz question for you.
  26. I mentioned that Britain imports 40%
  27. of its food from other producers, mostly in Europe.
  28. But which European country does the UK import
  29. the most food from? Is it a France,
  30. b the Netherlands or c Ireland?
  31. I've seen the Netherlands on a lot
  32. of food packaging in the UK,
  33. so I'm going to say b the Netherlands.
  34. OK, well, we'll find out if you're right later in the programme.
  35. According to the UK government's recent report,
  36. there are many issues affecting Britain's food supply.
  37. Geopolitical conflicts like those in Ukraine and Iran,
  38. droughts and water shortages, loss of biodiversity caused by climate change.
  39. The list goes on and on. Here,
  40. climate reporter Mark Pointing discusses the report's
  41. conclusions with BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme.
  42. And it really draws on scientific research
  43. and to come up with what it calls
  44. as a reasonable worst case scenario
  45. for how biodiversity loss could affect UK security.
  46. And its conclusions are really quite stark.
  47. The first line of the report says
  48. global ecosystem degradation and collapse threatens the UK's national security.
  49. The report describes a worst case scenario
  50. where Britain runs out of food.
  51. A worst-case scenario is the worst possible thing
  52. that could happen in a particular situation.
  53. Mark says the report's conclusions are stark an adjective
  54. which in this case means obvious or severe.
  55. Another problem with food security relates to climate change.
  56. Carbon emissions from food production make up
  57. around a third of all greenhouse gases,
  58. from the diesel used to drive tractors, to fertilisers,
  59. to cows and sheep producing methane.
  60. Emma Pinchbeck is the chief executive of the UK's Climate Change Committee.
  61. She spoke about this problem with BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme.
  62. The biggest chunk of emissions from agriculture
  63. comes from simply having livestock on the land.
  64. That's the bit of the puzzle
  65. that we need to think about going forward.
  66. And in the way that we've thought about it,
  67. for every cow or sheep we take
  68. off the land, we put on something else.
  69. And what that does overall is it makes farmers
  70. and landowners part of the solution to climate change, not the problem.
  71. Livestock that's farm animals such as cattle,
  72. sheep and pigs contribute most of the carbon emissions from agriculture.
  73. Moving towards a sustainable food supply
  74. involves reducing the amount of meat and dairy we
  75. eat in favour of non-animal protein such as beans and lentils.
  76. Encouraging farmers and consumers to move away from meat
  77. is a piece of the puzzle, according to Emma.
  78. A piece of the puzzle means
  79. a part of the solution to a problem,
  80. in this case the twin problems of food security and climate change.
  81. Emma says it's important to think again about how farmland is used.
  82. For every cow or sheep taken off the land,
  83. something else, such as a fruit tree
  84. or vegetable crop, is put in its place.
  85. That way farmers become part of the solution, not the problem.
  86. An idiom meaning that if you are not actively
  87. trying to fix a problem, you are helping it continue.
  88. Lots of ideas to chew over there, Neil.
  89. But now, isn't it time you revealed the answer to your question?
  90. My question was, which European country does the UK
  91. import the most food from? And you said b the Netherlands.
  92. And you were absolutely correct, Pippa.
  93. It is the Netherlands. The UK imports £7.6 billion
  94. worth of imports, especially vegetables and dairy.
  95. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with food security
  96. the situation where a country has a reliable enough
  97. supply of food to feed its population.
  98. The worst case scenario is the worst possible thing
  99. that could happen in a particular situation.
  100. The adjective stark has several meanings, including obvious and severe.
  101. Livestock are animals and birds that are kept on a farm,
  102. such as cows, sheep or chickens.
  103. The phrase, a piece of the puzzle,
  104. means a part of the solution to a problem.
  105. And finally, the idiom, be part of the solution, not the problem,
  106. means that if you are not actively trying
  107. to fix a problem, you are helping it continue.