The healthy eating trend is catching on fast, significantly increasing the consumption of fruit year-on-year. It has led to ever more discerning consumers wanting to eat fruit when they want to, irrespective of seasons.

Consumers now expect to be able to buy top quality, well-flavoured, well-presented soft fruit, produced in as environmentally safe way as possible, twelve months of the year, with an increasing preference for locally sourced produce to save food miles.

Until a few years ago, consumers could only buy strawberries for five to six weeks during the summer. But then the big retailers began to fly the fruit in from around the world for a Christmas treat. However, having developed that out-of-season trade, retailers began to import strawberries throughout the year and seasonality was a thing of the past. Imports were severely challenging British producers.

What were British strawberry growers to do? Was there a solution, or would we see the demise of an important sector of the British agricultural scene?

For decades tomatoes and strawberries for the British market had been produced under polythene in Spain and Portugal so, around the early 90s, British strawberry growers began to look at the possibility of introducing the technology as a means of reclaiming their diminishing share of a rapidly increasing strawberry market. By the end of the decade, growing strawberries under polytunnels in Herefordshire was beginning to take off.

What are the advantages of using polytunnels? They extend the UK strawberry growing season from a few weeks to many months, reducing the imports flown in from California.

Growing under cover protects the crops from adverse weather, guarantying continuity of supply of high quality fruit, grown in a more environmentally friendly way due to a reduction in chemical use compared to crops grown in the open. By using trickle-irrigation, the efficiency of water use is also increased. This is in marked contrast to the use of flood irrigation in California, where water use is now a critical issue.

The increase in strawberry production under plastic during the last decade has brought a valuable income stream to Herefordshire. It filters down to suppliers of equipment and materials and to local traders and shops. As well as employing casuals during the picking season, it creates work for a considerable number of locals throughout the year, However, the growth in the development of this new and valuable sector of Herefordshire's farming has been challenged by a small, well-organised group of articulate people.

"That group, who punch well above their weight, certainly do not represent the opinion of the vast majority of those who live in or visit the county," says strawberry grower Anthony Snell of Harewood End.

Certainly, mistakes have been made with the siting and use of polytunnels. To counter the problems, Herefordshire Council and growers agreed a Code of Conduct, but this was subsequently withdrawn by the council's scrutiny committee. The code covered aspects such as location, screening, and the length of time the polythene cover could be in place over the crop, and a restriction on the number of years any location could be used.

To alleviate some of the criticisms aimed at the visual impact of the polytunnels, the manufacturers of the covering polythene, aided by researchers at Reading University, began to look at ways to reduce the glare from the tunnels and whether it would be possible to use coloured plastic.

New materials are now becoming available which massively reduce the reflective glare, reducing the visual impact. Currently a well-structured replicated trial in the county is looking at various aspects of using the new types and colours of covering materials. This is not only looking at the visual impact but also the agronomic aspects of the use of the new materials, which are now available and being adopted by growers.

"What must be guarded against is any action that will seriously challenge the use of polytunnels in the county. Their use has now become an integral part of the farming scene and the county's economy. It is imperative that the baby must not be thrown out with the bathwater," added Mr Snell