Garden and greenhouse enthusiasts encouraged to grow food

British garden and greenhouse enthusiasts who grow their own food are helping to cut the UKs carbon emissions and fight climate change.

That is the opinion of a new government task force set up to encourage more people to cultivate fruit and vegetables at home.

The group will look to educate and provoke citizens into using their green space to put healthy, low-cost food on their tables, according to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).

"If we grow and eat more fruit and vegetables here – in our greenhouses, in our orchards, in our fields, our allotments and in our own back gardens – it will be good for our health, our farming community and our landscape," explained environment secretary Hillary Benn, who launched the task force.

He added that the initiative will hopefully encourage people to eat more fresh food, which should help boost nutrition levels across the UK.

Government figures show that just ten per cent of fresh fruit and 58 per cent of fresh vegetables consumed in the UK during 2008 came from British soil.

The news follows an RHS appeal to UK consumers to buy English apples after orchards celebrated a bumper harvest this year.