Asda and Morrisons rationing fruit and Veg


UK growers don't knock out many tomatoes this time.of year... Too expensive to heat the greenhouses and not enough natural light . I live next to some of the largest glasshouses in the country

It is hard to change, but we need to look at joined up industry, literally.

I remember a story on the radio ages ago. One of our strawberry growers was standing outside his greenhouses one day thinking about how he was struggling with bills to heat his greenhouses. He looked across to the neighbouring unit which was a sugar processing place. They were venting lots of hot air out of the side facing the greenhouses. They checked with the food standards agency and ran a pipe from the processing unit to the greenhouses. I think he said the deal was he got free heat, the CEO got free strawberries.

Obviously you can't do that with certain industries. If it was some chemical industry next door then it probably would not be a good idea. But it does show that if you can group businesses together there is massive potential for cost and environmental savings. What does each business consume and what does each business waste, then put the jigsaw together. But you can't just uproot big businesses so it needs to be planned for future developments and perhaps with a 30 year plan to gradually encourage people to move. Certainly if someone is looking to build a food safe heat producing industry somewhere, then there should be strong encouragement for that to be built near our large greenhouse areas like the ones you linked.
 
It is hard to change, but we need to look at joined up industry, literally.

I remember a story on the radio ages ago. One of our strawberry growers was standing outside his greenhouses one day thinking about how he was struggling with bills to heat his greenhouses. He looked across to the neighbouring unit which was a sugar processing place. They were venting lots of hot air out of the side facing the greenhouses. They checked with the food standards agency and ran a pipe from the processing unit to the greenhouses. I think he said the deal was he got free heat, the CEO got free strawberries.

Obviously you can't do that with certain industries. If it was some chemical industry next door then it probably would not be a good idea. But it does show that if you can group businesses together there is massive potential for cost and environmental savings. What does each business consume and what does each business waste, then put the jigsaw together. But you can't just uproot big businesses so it needs to be planned for future developments and perhaps with a 30 year plan to gradually encourage people to move. Certainly if someone is looking to build a food safe heat producing industry somewhere, then there should be strong encouragement for that to be built near our large greenhouse areas like the ones you linked.
Same happened in Sheffield. They connected the heat that escaped from the steel works to the municipal buildings in the city centre. Joined up thinking.
 

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