Is the UK only days away from a food shortage?

When MPs are warning the public to eat less meat because the UK is “never more than a few days from a significant food shortage”, I must admit, the survivalist in me feels vindicated.

Most of us are completely unaware how fragile our boring lives are, and that with a jolt from an outside source such as oil prices skyrocketing, or in this case, too many people wanting to eat beef and cheese(?!) that the supply of food in our shops WILL dwindle and possibly even stop.

If we all grow our herbs and vegetables at home we can supplement these with store-bought staples like bread, milk, cheese and meat. This would at least give us a fall-back; a supply of food if the shops' supplies run low. There are other benefits to growing your own food, like the health benefits involved in being outside, physical labour and knowing what is in your food. It’s also cheaper to grow a proportion of your own food, especially herbs which are easy to grow just about anywhere (a window sill will do).

Using permaculture methods, only a quarter acre of land is required to feed a family of four (or more depending on their diet). Perhaps if we all ate a bit less meat and cheese then we could manage more of our own survival? When the world goes to hell in a handbasket I want to have a healthy vegie patch instead of queueing with the brawlers for a loaf of bread. 

That reminds me, my vegie patch is pretty dead right now... it needs some winter TLC.

It doesn’t take a lot of money or energy to get started, what would encourage you to grow some food? Or what have you had success with?