During the second world war, Americans bred a tomato which would ripen in northern climes ie within the arctic circle, so that American servicemen could have fresh produce when stationed up there. It's called something like Arctic Cherry and is still available as seed.
If that could be done then why would we need to have major glasshouse developments all over the country now? Heating glasshouses and the chemicals needed to grow tomatoes out of season in the UK apparently uses just as much fossil fuels and produces just as much greenhouse gasses as growing them elsewhere and importing them here, perhaps even storing them. Given most imports are already stored here for months at a time, perhaps those facilities could be used to store British-grown summer crops grown outdoors for use in winter, all within the UK.
Well here in the Scottish Borders you can now get locally grown tomatoes - a nearby dairy farm (the last one in this area) is using their 
to heat a huge polytunnel... available in our local greengrocer and nice! (But I have my own ones starting to ripen in my own polytunnel now
Yes we can get locally grown tomatoes here too, grown in the Clyde valley, and we have eaten some of our own already this year, grown in our unheated polytunnel. Tomatoes can be grown in Scotland! Who new? Every veg gardener in Scotland, but clearly not supermarket managers.
So why on earth do the supermarkets not sell them? When I raised this with the Tesco store in Lanark (which is in the Clyde valley so couldn't be more local to the growers) I was told that 'customers don't want them' and 'local suppliers can't supply us every week of the year'. This was a few years back but I was a customer and I certainly wanted local tomatoes, and other produce but I was being told in a very patronising voice that I didn't want them
I know now that the produce would probably be sent down to the English Midlands to be packed, then trucked back to Lanark and that would be ludicrous.
But right now, in the pandemic, the only way I can safely buy in any food, locally produced or not, is by click and collect at one of three supermarkets. Those supermarkets do not stock the local tomatoes, therefore I cannot safely buy them, being shielding. In fact our local greengrocer has them and sometimes we risk buying tomatoes and flour there. Ranald is very helpful and careful about reducing risks and I wish I could buy all my food from him, but he doesn't stock a full range, being a greengrocer and sometimes baker.
I am not representative of all those shielding and many people have no chance of buying from Ranald or similar excellent small local shops. Many older and sick people do not own, or cannot drive, a car so do not have access and have to rely for their food on supermarkets. Those supermarkets are not supplying our needs and seem not to listen to their customers.
Topic: British Produce (Read 8858 times)
