The future of our fruit and veg
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 976 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sheila Dillon visits fruit and veg growers across the country to ask what should the government put in its landmark plan to grow more in the UK.
With war in the Middle East driving up fertiliser and energy prices and a growing health crisis at home, more homegrown fruit and veg could hold the answers to many of our problems. But those on the ground tell a different story, as businesses prepare to invest more in farms overseas, increase imports or face an ongoing struggle to cover rising costs and competition.
Sheila meets a berry grower in Kent, and a tomato producer in Lancashire, who show her the realities of their farms today, and she hears from experts across the sector with their ideas for what could, and should, go into the government’s Horticulture Growth Plan.
Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | On BBC Sounds, there are podcasts to help you look after your body and your mind. |
| 0:12.7 | From increasing your immunity to feeling more confident. |
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| 0:25.6 | and complex with Kimberly Wilson. |
| 0:27.6 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.6 | This is the best time of year to look at a piccolo crop. |
| 0:36.6 | So this is a perfectly ripened piccolo tomato. |
| 0:41.7 | We all know we need to eat more vegetables and fruit. |
| 0:45.4 | My goodness, it's so surprising, isn't it? There's nothing on the ground. |
| 0:48.3 | These are a variety called Centenary. |
| 0:50.7 | There's some sweet, not intensely flavoured, but nicely flavoured. There's that five-a-day |
| 0:56.7 | target, along with steadily rising rates of obesity and the chronic diseases that follow in its path, |
| 1:03.5 | plus what looks like a new government appreciation of the link between diet and the public's health. |
| 1:10.0 | But if we're going to eat more, more tomatoes, berries, leafy greens, carrots, potatoes and all the |
| 1:15.0 | rest of it, where will it all come from? |
| 1:17.5 | Well, as we heard in Dan Saladino and Jack Thompson's recent edition of the food program, |
| 1:22.9 | why is Africa feeding us? |
... |
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