British farmers are abandoning cauliflower for broccoli

Cauliflower has been an important part of the British diet for hundreds of years. Cauliflower cheese and cauliflower with the Sunday roast were regular parts of British life until the 1990s. However, in the past ten years, farmers have been producing about one third less cauliflower.

According to UK government data, farmers produced 120,000 tons of cauliflower in 2007. This is a decrease from 195,000 tons ten years earlier. In 1997 farmers grew cauliflower on 13,382 hectares of land. Only 9,503 hectares of land were used for this purpose in 2007.

British farmers are abandoning cauliflower for broccoli in response to consumer demand. Consumers consider broccoli to be a superfood. Alleged experts have told them that dark green vegetables are more nutritious than other types of vegetables. Therefore, British consumers are switching from white cauliflower to dark green broccoli. However, the Brassica Growers Association claims that cauliflower (Brassica oleracea botrytis) is as healthy as broccoli. It has instituted a high-profile campaign to encourage the cauliflower consumption. This campaign should also help farmers in these uncertain economic times.

Cauliflower has high levels of lecithin, which is important for liver and gall bladder health, is essential for the healthy development of the fetal nervous system, and is believed to help improve memory.

Cauliflower also contains glucosolinates, super-nutrients which are believed to boost phase-2 enzymes, which eradicate carcinogens and pollutants. While cauliflower does not contain as much glucosolinates as broccoli, it still has a significant amount.

Cauliflower also contains vitamin C and soluble fiber.

Cauliflower is one of the few vegetables that can be grown in Britain throughout the year. About three fifths of British cauliflower is grown in Lincolnshire. The rest comes from Lancashire, Kent and Cornwall. Broccoli, on the other hand, must be imported from mid-November to June.

Philip Effingham, chairman of the Brassica Growers Association, is technical director of Marshalls, which farms 2000 acres of cauliflower in Lincolnshire. Mr. Effingham says that British consumers should be eating more cauliflower because it is versatile, nutritious and British.