David's Digest

According to the Bank of England, annual food inflation hit 6% in April. Waterlogged crops and Foot & Mouth disease in this country together with extreme weather conditions in other parts of the world from which we could otherwise import supplies could push up prices further, it warned.

Might I and others be forgiven for retorting "We told you so"?

Indeed I am reminded of a comment made by A G (Arthur) Street on the long running BBC radio programme Any Questions. It was in the era of the ration book in the 1950's when food production was perceived as more important than it is now. Any Questions often had a farmer panelist in those days.

On the evening in question a member of the audience complained about the rising cost of potatoes. To which Arthur Street replied that farmers who grew potatoes had spent many months ploughing their fields, planting the seed potatoes, nurturing the plants, protecting them from blight, then lifting, grading and bagging the tubers before delivering them to greengrocers.

It hasn't been a good year for potatoes, he continued, so there aren't as many to go round and the price has increased. Furthermore, the farmers who grew them need that extra money to make a living from putting food on your table. "So I'm glad the price you pay for potatoes has increased," he concluded. Interestingly, the audience, presumable mainly made up of consumers, applauded him.

It wouldn't be politically correct to say such things these day's so I had better not repeat it.