Vegetable and fruit grower and beekeeper, Cilla Platt, has strong views on climate change, especially with regard to the food buying choices we make.

She says: ’We don’t need COP26, we never did.

’So why have governments had to get together to decide our future existence?

’Because we have not bothered to think for ourselves.

’Lots of us think: "I cannot make a difference on my own, so why bother trying?"

’It is because we have gone down our individual blinkered ways that we need government to insist we do what we should have been doing all along.

’For instance, what we eat: we are so lucky in this country to have our shop shelves stuffed with cheap colourful food. It would be even cheaper if the supermarkets did not take such a big cut.

’Producers get very little, I know. I used to grow fruit and veg for a living in Lincolnshire.

’But as "the Housewife", do we want cheap at the cost of the planet we call home?

’Supermarkets keeping cheap in mind, go buying in countries where wages and welfare of staff and animals are ungoverned, so they can pay bread line wages. And regardless of cheap long distance haulage.

’Do we ever think of that? Of course we should.

’Buying local, and with local ingredients, may be marginally more expensive. But think of the freight miles saved. Think of the rain forests saved. Think of local jobs for local people!

’Food fads are so we can blame our own behaviour on others. Cows pass wind, get rid of cows.

’Humans pass wind too, especially those on veggie diets, should we get rid of humans?

’Remember that foods from outside Europe are usually cheap because of massive ungoverned pesticide use, and hopeless working conditions for the growers.

’We are what we eat. Pesticides don’t just send our bees "doolally". Work is being done on bees to see whether pesticides are producing Alzheimer’s. Well I never.

’Almonds and other nuts used as a protein replacement by many vegetarians and vegans, are grown cheaply in the US. The plantations are massive. Not a wild flower, or weed, is allowed. Not a bug is allowed except bees that usually die because of all the pesticides and totally limited diet for their young. Not a bird sings or a butterfly flits.

’The same applies to blueberries and cranberries. The list goes on and on.

’We must be happy with this as we eat it all, because we are told they are good for us, despite how they are grown. And we believe it without question.

’We could use our citizens collective to prevent use of palm oil. Palm oil is snuck into every thing, whilst environmentally friendly olive groves are rooted out as sales are through the floor. All kinds of vegetable oils are grown here, in UK and Europe, but they are not as cheap.

’We have historically destroyed the forests of our home island and those in Europe, so why are we not using that already desecrated space to grow our food? Because we don’t bother and we want ’cheap’.

’No, we do not need our great leaders to tell us what to do.

’We all know already, if we would just get off our backsides and do it.

’Not just you, not just me, but all of us.

’COP 26 is just someone to blame. Our COP OUT.’