If the vegetable crisis that struck earlier this year taught us anything it is that we are now so far removed from the production of our food that we barely know how it gets from field to table.
The extreme weather in the Mediterranean and in other parts of the continent literally left the country bewildered. People compared the empty supermarket shelves to conditions akin to a third world country, while others took to Twitter to berate the lack of courgettes in what must have been the most middle crisis in history.
The problem is that in this day and age you walk down a supermarket isle and expect to see everything from sprouts to avocado regardless of growing conditions or seasonality.
According to new research most people struggle to identify the correct seasons to buy produce such as tomatoes, cress, runner beans, swede and carrots, with one in ten believing ALL fruit and veg are available all through the year and a third didn’t realise there were certain months produce would taste better.
The study of 2,000 adults was commissioned by Innocent Drinks, after partnering with not-for-profit organisation Grow-It-Yourself to launch this year’s Sow & Grow campaign, which has reached a quarter of UK primary schools, and gets children engaged in healthy eating.
Sim Viney, Brand Manager for Innocent Drinks, said: “At the moment nine out of ten young people are not getting their 5-a-day, so we’ve been running a campaign called Sow & Grow, which has got a quarter of all primary school kids growing veg in their classrooms, and learning where their food comes from.
“We know that children who grow their own food are more likely to eat fruit and veg, and that kids who develop healthy habits at a young age are more likely to become healthy adults.”