The huge Thanet Earth site from the air. Photograph: Henry Browne
Do you remember the Countryside Coalition - a brief moment when heliotrope coloured Tory bird slaughterers marched shoulder to shoulder with dog-on-a-string bunnyhuggers and Archers wannabees from Guildford - temporarily united by the threat to foxhunting?
I sometimes think foodies are like that. At the moment bloated gourmands, home cooks, high-end restaurant collectors, farting vegans and celebrity chefs can all get behind the notion that locally sourced, seasonal produce is great, supermarkets suck and battery farming should be abolished. It's all holding together ... just.
Then along comes something that makes it impossible to hold a general foodie party line, something like 'Thanet Earth', "the UK's largest and most technologically-advanced glasshouse complex".
According to Esther Addley's report in today's Guardian 92 hectares (220 acres) of Kent are to be glazed over to provide "cucumbers and peppers ... picked continuously from February to October, tomatoes harvested every day of the week, 52 weeks a year".
In fact Thanet Earth will, when fully on stream, supply over 15% of the UK's salad requirement. The project will employ 550 people, be fed from its own reservoir and, according to the developers the "environmental impact, considering the scale of the operation, will be minimised".
Nothing on this scale has ever been tried in the UK before, though it's common in Spain, the Netherlands and California. So why has a consortium of Dutch growers suddenly decided it's a great idea to do it in the Garden of England? Well, apparently, it's us, the foodies, with our suddenly increased demands for local English fruit and veg.
Hang about. How the hell are we getting the blame for this?
I can see that, for certain portions of the foodie coalition, this is no bad thing. 550 new jobs in farming are not to be sniffed at - though I somehow doubt that it will be bucolic youths from Billericay tending the vines. More, cheaper salad must surely please the healthy eating wing and the veggies, and assuming the greens are OK with the recycling of water, the reduction of food miles involved in not having to ship 15% of our lettuce half way round the world must be a joy. Even the vocal local NIMBYs seem to have allowed this one to pass - greenhouses must do less damage to property values than refugee hostels or windfarms. But be reasonable, does this meet anyone's criteria for better veg?
Let's take this slowly shall we. Nice short words, possibly a couple of simple explanatory diagrams on a flip chart. Point one - and this is a big one guys - utterly tasteless, hydroponically grown tomatoes, identical uber-cucumbers and iceberg lettuce were what started this whole organic/seasonal/local thing off in the first place.
Point two - When we said we wanted 'seasonal and local' we didn't mean 'extend the season and move production closer'.
If this is the result of our national desire to eat better, perhaps we should be more careful what we wish for.
