Home growers helping boost UK food security

Brits who use their garden and greenhouse to grow their own fruit and vegetables could be contributing to the countrys food security.

According to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), a government task force has been set up to encourage more homeowners to start a kitchen garden.

It follows the results of a study into the nations food security, which found that growing your own is key to battling climate change.

Aside from encouraging more growth, environment secretary Hillary Benn hopes people will also begin to eat healthily, increasing the number of fruit and vegetable portions consumed by Brits.

"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," he said.

The research showed that just over one in ten pieces of fruit consumed in the UK during 2008 was grown on British vines.

Meanwhile, 58 per cent of vegetables came from UK soil, with some varieties particularly suffering.

In other news, the RHS revealed that new research has discovered a distinctive odour that is emitted before the botrytis fungus attacks tomatoes.