Angela Eagle
speaker
239 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 22 May
Angela Eagle’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
We all know we need to eat more vegetables and fruit.
My goodness, it's so surprising, isn't it?
There's nothing on the ground.
They're sort of sweet, not intensely flavoured, but nicely flavoured.
There's that five-a-day target, along with steadily rising rates of obesity and the chronic diseases that follow in its path, plus what looks like a new government appreciation of the link between diet and the public's health.
But if we're going to eat more, more tomatoes, berries, leafy greens, carrots, potatoes, and all the rest of it, where will it all come from?
Well, as we heard in Dan Saladino and Jack Thompson's recent edition of the Food Programme, Why Is Africa Feeding Us?, the market is pushing us towards cheaper imports, with British horticultural firms leasing and buying land in Africa, Southern Europe, and elsewhere to grow a lot more of what we can actually grow here.
All of which is the context for this government's new plan to boost UK horticulture.
What should be in that plan?
Well, that's what this programme is about.
If anything, what's happened in the Strait of Hormuz and in the Middle East demonstrates that we do have to make sure we're resilient.
I think in the past, because we've not had much trouble with food supply for many, many, many years, a lot of people have taken it for granted.
It's always on the shelves.
You don't have to worry about it.
You don't have to know how it got there.
I'm not that complacent about it.
That was Angela Eagle, DEFRA farming minister, speaking to us with the very first details about her department's upcoming horticulture sector growth plan.
We'll hear more from her later.
Our evidence gathering took us to two big fruit and veg growers, one now investing overseas and the other looking at an empty field with planning permission for a new glasshouse, but who's unable to start the building.
Clearly, there's a problem.
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