A Quarter of All Brits Now Grow Their Own

MORE than one in four Brits now grow their own fruit and vegetables, shunning supermarkets and green grocers a new national study has revealed.

Dubbed ‘The Good Lifers’ after the hit 1970s TV show, a massive 26% of UK householders now say they prefer to grow their own fruit and vegetables in their own back-garden or allotment in order to save money and help the environment.

‘The Good Lifers’ want to know that their vegetables and fruit are eco-friendly. They require knowledge of where their fruit and veg has come from, how it is grown and want to be safe in the knowledge that there are not thousands of road-miles required to get them to their table.

In a survey commissioned by home-cleaning giants Vileda, 3,000 Brits* set out their ‘eco-friendly’ contribution to the UK green effort.

In addition to growing your own, Brits are now doing more at home to help the environment with 87% of Brits turning lights off as they leave a room and 63% making sure TV’s aren’t left on standby.

The revelation comes in the same month that the campaign for a national Good Life gathered pace as Landshare was listed as one of the top-selling apps on the Apple appstore. Landshare allows users to connect with people who have land to share with home-growers and is being seen as the new technology-fuelled dawn for the home-grown movement.

Vileda has recently launched a range of eco-friendly cleaning products called ‘Naturals’, and company spokesperson Lindsey Taylor believes growing your own fruit and veg is just the tip of the iceberg.

She said: “Our survey reveals people are very aware of their need to become more eco-friendly in pretty much everything they do. They realise the health of future generations depends on it.

“From buying cleaning products which are more eco-friendly, through growing your own fruit and veg, to turning out the light when you leave a room – every action counts.

“We have discovered that a product’s green credentials can be an essential element of whether it is a success or not. The UK is very serious about the ecological impact of everyday life and everyone, from small grocers to multinational supermarket groups, are having to sit up and listen and take action.

“It’s very encouraging to see.”