Westcountry families may have to grow more of their own food to cope with rising prices and global shortages, a Government Minister has warned.
Echoing the famous Second World War slogan "dig for victory", Farming Minister David Heath said spiralling costs could require a "dig for survival" strategy.
The warning came as new figures showed fruit prices are more than 10% higher than last year with vegetable costs up 6.7%.
Meat prices have also risen 2.4%, reflecting the increased production costs being faced by Westcountry farmers after 18 months of poor weather.
Mr Heath said the country could no longer rely on food imports and needed a greater level of self sufficiency, nationally and individually.
"With an increasing population, increasing demand not just in this country but across the world, we are going to have to increase food production," he said.
"We made a huge mistake a few years ago when the idea got around that we didn't need to produce in the agricultural sector any more, that we would be able to buy our way through whatever was necessary to feed the country.
"Once we used to 'dig for victory'. There may come a time soon when we need to 'dig for survival'."
He later added: 'We need to be able to produce enough to deal with the requirements in this country. Food security is going to be an issue of increasing relevance.
'There is nothing that provides more classical insecurity across the world than not being able to feed populations adequately so we need to be aware of that and we need to respond to it."
New inflation figures yesterday showed the impact of food price rises on the cost of living.
The Consumer Prices Index remained unchanged on 2.8%, although last month bread and cereals were up by 3.6%.
Ian Johnson, spokesman for the National Farmer's Union in the South West, said: "Some 80% of the region is grassland and most of the crops grown here are for animal feed.
"But after 18 months of wet weather, and three consecutive bad winters, the availability of animal feed is becoming critical and silage is running out because farmers have not been able to turn out cattle when they normally would.
"The impact has been huge cost increases for farmers and that will be felt for a long time and may well get worse."
Mr Johnson said farmers would only be able to pass on those "cumulative" costs, if public attitudes changed.
"Consumers, and farmers are consumers too, have to realise that we have enjoyed very cheap food for a long time," he added.
"But we have to be realistic – food costs more to produce and, inevitably, will cost more to buy."
