England's larder

Food has been in the news in the last few weeks once again.
It seems that there are fears that food prices could triple within the next two decades. It's fairly inevitable that they are going to rise.

Food is going to be covered in our KS3 work, in particular with a unit in Year 7 called You are what you Eat

The East of England has always been at the forefront of food production, with the soil of the Fens being amongst the best (if not the best) agricultural land in the country.
The Fenlands of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire are packed with arable crops as a consequence.
King's Ely is right in the heart of this agricultural area, and a drive in any direction will soon bring you out into fields with the dark Fenland silt soils. I shall be travelling through those fields at all times of day and night, all times of year, and in all weathers as I make my way to work. I'm hoping to document the changing moods.

Research carried out at the John Innes centre is a major part of this drive to allow technology to support farmers in producing more food in the future, and also to 'engineer' this food so that it has particular properties, or less likely to suffer from environmental factors.

Students will be exploring the issue of rising food prices, changing food security and technological fixes, as well as local food producers.
One possibility that's been discussed is to visit a local farm too during the year. There may also be options for connecting with the people who provide the food in the dining hall to explore supply chains etc. Food is at the heart of living geography, as it's a universal experience.

ONS maps were also recently released, which explore employment by industry. These include a useful map which shows the relative importance for particular parts of the UK for different types of employment. See them HERE.

If you look at the diagram below, for example, you can see which parts of the UK where food, forestry and mining are the most important for employment. I'll leave it to you to work out why the Shetlands are top, but it's not because of carrots...
Fenland comes in second here... Farming is clearly a major employer in the area which is dominated by Ely and its cathedral: 'the ship of the Fens'

Image: Alan Parkinson