Covid Lessons Not Learnt: Why There Is Heartbreak and Misery in Rural England

It’s hard to forget the time five years ago: the UK had just gone into the first lockdown, we queued outside shops, and once inside we found not just the shelves with toilet rolls empty – to get hold of fresh fruit and veg, milk, meat or flour (remember the sour dough craze?) was like a lottery win. While city folk got frustrated, farmers stepped up: they started box schemes and vastly increased the numbers of existing ones, they organised delivery points and drive-through pick-up lines, they entertained us with live cams from the lambing shed, published blogs and helped novice cooks to deal with fresh produce. Suddenly, we connected with the farmers who produce our food, and efforts to build a resilient, sustainable, local food system seemed to gain momentum. Such were the moments of optimism in the middle of a global pandemic.

Five years on….

… all of us, UK farmers and consumers, are in a very different place.