New Task Force will encourage cultivation in greenhouses, orchards, fields, allotments and back gardens

A new Task Force will help England to grow and eat more fruit and vegetables and improve the nation’s health, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has announced.

Comprising growers, retailers, consumers and agricultural researchers, the Fruit and Vegetables Task Force will develop an action plan to increase the production and consumption of fruit and vegetables in this country.

Mr Benn said: 'If we grow and eat more fruit and vegetables here – in our greenhouses, in our orchards, in our fields, our allotments and in our own back gardens – it will be good for our health, our farming community, and our landscape.

Mr Benn said that the new group needed to look at ways to get people growing their own fruit and vegetables, as well as ways to support England’s commercial growers – and to get people choosing local fruit and veg, particularly when it’s in season.

'There is a gap at the moment, between what we consume and what we grow here, but there’s no reason why we can’t grow more here. And the main thing we can do to encourage this is to choose, and eat, British produce.'