House prices are falling, food and fuel prices likely to keep on going up. Food and fuel prices are increasing largely as a result of higher demand for oil in the world and the growth of the bio fuel market which has meant less grain for food.

Why are we at the continual mercy of oil producers, or cheap labour in other countries? I believe that whereas years ago we produced our food and energy at home, we now rely on distant producers transporting commodities across the world.

We used to look at the "balance of payments" as a measure of our countries success in reducing imports by encouraging home production. What can we do now? I believe that governments should invest in producing food and energy at home.

I don't believe for one minute that we can produce all our food and energy at home. But, I do know that producing more food and energy at home is good in terms of security and for our economy.

The danger of food shortages are here now. There have already been food riots in the middle and Far East; there may be riots at petrol pumps as fuel prices continue to rise. The threat of climate change also means that crops fail in once rich producing areas of the world.

I believe our farms and gardens and our natural resources will become an increasingly important part in sustaining our economy.

After all, growing our own vegetables is a healthy option both for exercise and diet! Governments and councils need to encourage more food production through education and training. The county council's estate of small farms may become an important resource to train and assist more people into farming and I hope, into horticulture.

Schools have an important part to play in developing gardens. The skills of running a garden should be taught in schools – like cooking and team games. School gardens like school farms have all but disappeared. Surely in a rural county like Montgomeryshire we should pioneer their re-establishment.

The same argument applies to energy production, once most was produced locally using water power.

We have a vast resource in water as power; just look at all our sites of former water mills. I know that wind power is controversial, but I would love to see communities own their own wind turbines and use the profits to fund their own local services.

There are so many possibilities to develop local solutions. Governments prefer large central solutions like the £15 billion Severn Barrage.

How much better if we had thousands of local projects to produce food and energy rather than one big one?