LETTER: Create more allotments, not more homes

Clearly the issue of waste in the Western world is one which could be changed by changing the mindset of people, but for me the first question to address is how this report reflects on food production here.

The biggest farmer in the nation is the Co-op. It prides itself on its ethical and sustainable credentials and claims to be “good for everyone”, but where I live in the Ribble Valley it is trying to sell agricultural land for housing.

The housing “crop” is far more financially rewarding than grass and the Co-op is prepared to ignore its own policies in pursuit of the large profits available from selling houses in our rural landscape.

If the Co-op needs to increase its return from land assets, then it could take up the idea of creating more allotments. There is a national shortage of allotments and people are prepared to rent them and work hard to provide their own food rather than buy beans which have been flown from Kenya or broccoli which has come all the way from Spain.

Once our green fields have been built on they are lost for ever, so here is a sustainable, ethical and community based response which the Co-op could pioneer in order to begin to address the demand for food in Britain.

NICK WALKER,

Whalley