Supermarkets are importing more and more food to cover the shortfall, with just 10 per cent of all the fruit and 50% of all vegetables eaten in the country are grown in Britain. 

A report from the Department for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs suggests that since 1997 orchards have declined in size by 33 per cent, while the area of land given over to fresh vegetables and fruit has fallen by 23 per cent. 

Did you know in all, 170,000 acres of horticultural land has been abandoned – equivalent to nearly twice the area of the Isle of Wight – in the last decade. 

Experts say they are increasingly worried Britain is facing a major food security problem. 

Prof Tim Lang of City University and a senior Government food adviser, said: "We are entering troubled times. We cannot sit idly by and watch British production slide ever downwards. If in five or ten years' time there was a water crisis in Europe or Africa – and that is a real possibility – we need to be ready and that means being more self-sufficient. We need to grow more."