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The amount of food grown in back gardens and allotments is a minuscule fraction of what’s needed to feed us all.

Birmingham has poor soils and no natural significant water supply, and thus never an area where agriculture thrived, it is arguably home to the first urban allotment in the world, the Guinea Gardens. One of these, behind the Botanical Gardens in Edgbaston, is still a thriving allotment.

an aside: The reason why Birmingham is such a green city is mainly down to two factors: First, its location a combined with poor agricultural conditions is within the northern fringes of the ancient Forest of Arden, which has never been cut down for farming.

Secondly, several influential philanthropic industrialists built housing for their workers, and provided them with gardens and/or access to allotments so they could have a healthy diet, and no doubt work better.

Examples include Bournville and the Moor Pool estate. Indeed, the City Council in the mid-20th century paid attention to their estates being near to parks, of which the city has over 600.

A challenge, though, to growing food on former industrial land is the existence of polluted soils, as well as today’s air pollution challenges.

a) See Part Two (What it takes to feed the city) and Part Three (The value of urban agriculture) in the Birmingham 2050 Scenarios Report: https://www.birminghamfoodcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/The-Birmingham-2050-Scenarios-Report_June-2013_lowres.pdf

b) See also this blogpost: heavy metal contamination in Birmingham soils https://www.birminghamfoodcouncil.org/2019/06/08/heavy-metal-contamination-in-birmingham-soils/

c) And this one: Why talk of grow-your-own (GYO) is irrelevant and unhelpful. https://
www.birminghamfoodcouncil.org/2019/02/19/why-talk-of-grow-your-own-gyo-is-irrelevant-andunhelpful/
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The correct answer is : 100%

The amount of food grown in back gardens and allotments is a minuscule fraction of what’s needed to feed us all.

Birmingham has poor soils and no natural significant water supply, and thus never an area where agriculture thrived, it is arguably home to the first urban allotment in the world, the Guinea Gardens. One of these, behind the Botanical Gardens in Edgbaston, is still a thriving allotment.

an aside: The reason why Birmingham is such a green city is mainly down to two factors: First, its location a combined with poor agricultural conditions is within the northern fringes of the ancient Forest of Arden, which has never been cut down for farming.

Secondly, several influential philanthropic industrialists built housing for their workers, and provided them with gardens and/or access to allotments so they could have a healthy diet, and no doubt work better.

Examples include Bournville and the Moor Pool estate. Indeed, the City Council in the mid-20th century paid attention to their estates being near to parks, of which the city has over 600.

A challenge, though, to growing food on former industrial land is the existence of polluted soils, as well as today’s air pollution challenges.

a) See Part Two (What it takes to feed the city) and Part Three (The value of urban agriculture) in the Birmingham 2050 Scenarios Report: https://www.birminghamfoodcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/The-Birmingham-2050-Scenarios-Report_June-2013_lowres.pdf

b) See also this blogpost: heavy metal contamination in Birmingham soils https://www.birminghamfoodcouncil.org/2019/06/08/heavy-metal-contamination-in-birmingham-soils/

c) And this one: Why talk of grow-your-own (GYO) is irrelevant and unhelpful. https://
www.birminghamfoodcouncil.org/2019/02/19/why-talk-of-grow-your-own-gyo-is-irrelevant-andunhelpful/

Great job.

Answer

1.1M x 2000kcal = 2.2 billion kcal per day.

2.2 billion = 365 = 803,000,000,000 kcal per year (or over three quarters of a trillion kcal)

The average calorie requirement for a person is about 2000 kcal/day. Of course people vary, infants require less, a grown, highly active young man needs more.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) state, however, that the requirement is 1,800 kcal/day. But as that makes the calculation a tad harder to do, I’ve kept it at 2000 kcal/day.
The average calorie consumption per person in the UK is over 3,000 kcal/day; i.e. well over 50% above what we need to eat. The consequence is growing levels of obesity, as this FAO shows

Calories are a necessary but not sufficient part of a healthy diet. We need minerals, vitamins and trace elements too. All of these can come from fruit, nuts, seeds and vegetables.

a) Birmingham’s population: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20057/about_birmingham/1294/population_and_census/2

b) FAO STAT United Kingdom: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#country/229

c) See also: Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/food-per-person

The correct answer is : 1.1M x 2000kcal = 2.2 billion kcal per day.

2.2 billion = 365 = 803,000,000,000 kcal per year (or over three quarters of a trillion kcal)

The average calorie requirement for a person is about 2000 kcal/day. Of course people vary, infants require less, a grown, highly active young man needs more.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) state, however, that the requirement is 1,800 kcal/day. But as that makes the calculation a tad harder to do, I’ve kept it at 2000 kcal/day.
The average calorie consumption per person in the UK is over 3,000 kcal/day; i.e. well over 50% above what we need to eat. The consequence is growing levels of obesity, as this FAO shows

Calories are a necessary but not sufficient part of a healthy diet. We need minerals, vitamins and trace elements too. All of these can come from fruit, nuts, seeds and vegetables.

a) Birmingham’s population: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20057/about_birmingham/1294/population_and_census/2

b) FAO STAT United Kingdom: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#country/229

c) See also: Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/food-per-person

Great job.

67.5M x 365 = 24,637,000,000. So, to the nearest 100M, the UK population would need 23.7 billion apples a year (or, to be pernickety, 24.6 billion apples in a Leap Year.

See this cheery little video we made on this topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=lgsqYnjz20o.

You might notice the total in the video, made in February 2019 is 24 billion.
This is because the UK population has risen between then and today in mid-July 2019. We decided to give today’s higher figure to illustrate the impact of the world’s growing population.

a) The figure of 67.5M was taken from the Word Population Review: http://worldpopulationreview.com/
countries/united-kingdom-population/ in July 2019.

b) More reliable data, though dated, is provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS): https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates

The correct answer is 24.5 Billion Apples

67.5M x 365 = 24,637,000,000. So, to the nearest 100M, the UK population would need 23.7 billion apples a year (or, to be pernickety, 24.6 billion apples in a Leap Year.

See this cheery little video we made on this topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=lgsqYnjz20o.

You might notice the total in the video, made in February 2019 is 24 billion.
This is because the UK population has risen between then and today in mid-July 2019. We decided to give today’s higher figure to illustrate the impact of the world’s growing population.

a) The figure of 67.5M was taken from the Word Population Review: http://worldpopulationreview.com/
countries/united-kingdom-population/ in July 2019.

b) More reliable data, though dated, is provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS): https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates

Great job.

24.6 billion x 5 = 123 billion portions of fruit’n’veg per year.

Five-a-day is the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Over 70% of us here in the UK don’t eat five-a-day. Among 16-24 year olds, over three-quarters don’t. http://healthsurvey.hscic.gov.uk/data-visualisation/data-visualisation/explore-the-trends/fruitvegetables.aspx

One of (many) challenges is that it’s difficult to make money from fresh produce anywhere along the supply chain. Profit margins range from less than 0% to 2.5%. Or, as a senior supermarket manager said to me You need to understand that confectionary subsidises carrots.

Notes Based on the farm-gate value of unprocessed food in 2017, the UK supplied just under half (50%) of the food consumed in the UK: see Food Statistics Pocketbook, an annual set of stats published by the Government: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/food-statistics-pocketbook-2017/foodstatistics-in-your-pocket-2017-global-and-uk-supply

79% of the food we import comes from the EU. and according to Gro-intelligence, approximately 76% of the UK’s vegetable imports and 41% of the country’s fruit and nuts imports originated from the EU in 2017. https://gro-intelligence.com/insights/articles/brexit-reveals-uk-dependence-on-eu-fruit

The correct answer is : 123 Billion Portions

24.6 billion x 5 = 123 billion portions of fruit’n’veg per year.

Five-a-day is the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Over 70% of us here in the UK don’t eat five-a-day. Among 16-24 year olds, over three-quarters don’t. http://healthsurvey.hscic.gov.uk/data-visualisation/data-visualisation/explore-the-trends/fruitvegetables.aspx

One of (many) challenges is that it’s difficult to make money from fresh produce anywhere along the supply chain. Profit margins range from less than 0% to 2.5%. Or, as a senior supermarket manager said to me You need to understand that confectionary subsidises carrots.

Notes Based on the farm-gate value of unprocessed food in 2017, the UK supplied just under half (50%) of the food consumed in the UK: see Food Statistics Pocketbook, an annual set of stats published by the Government: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/food-statistics-pocketbook-2017/foodstatistics-in-your-pocket-2017-global-and-uk-supply

79% of the food we import comes from the EU. and according to Gro-intelligence, approximately 76% of the UK’s vegetable imports and 41% of the country’s fruit and nuts imports originated from the EU in 2017. https://gro-intelligence.com/insights/articles/brexit-reveals-uk-dependence-on-eu-fruit