Scarcities

I agree with Monica. Farmers will change their crops and machines will be developed if there is no labour. I am looking forward to eating English apples again. I shall not be stocking up.

I was trying to buy British products, Silver Spoon sugar is from sugar beet and is 100% British, I was surprised that Sainsburys only had their own brand which was produced in France, there wasn’t a gap on the shelf to accommodate any other Icing Sugar.

Astounded at some remarks at how it isn’t going to affect foods etc. Every government report ( their own) is telling them how much worse we are going to be and for decades. I don’t want to give up my nearest neighbors and be dependent in an America Presidents (fickle) trade deal promises!! Which won’t be honoured. Any Archers listeners will be following the story of Brexit voting Adam now having strawberries about to rot in polltunells because he can’t get Eastern European pickers ha! Well living in Lincolnshire where we supply almost all the kale for the country, ( sand shamefully are huge Brexit centre) it’s like the biggest act of self harm!! IT IS GOING TO LEAD TO FOOD ROTTING IN FIELDS. I think it’s better to listen to farmers who are echoing that than the daily mail! And anyway nobody stopping you from buying British produce now I’ve pissed and very concerned about animal I think so I’m lucky that I can buy fantastically grown and husband ed meat ( Bacon and ham nitrate free) 3 miles down the road but I want to choose Italian Parma ham . do we really want our meat coming from thousands of miles away and Without any controls on animal welfare? . I currently spend about £1000 a year ( A large portion of what we eat ) getting supplies from a wonderful single family estate in Tuscany , it arrives within three days of ordering , it’s on organic , and biodynamic , wine starting from £7ish a bottle and the most amazing pasta sauces etc Carbon neutral etc and I most definitely will be very very sad to see huge tariffs put on this We replaced another order last night for a lot of ( the most amazing) olive oil ( nothing likes what you get in supermarkets ! Just because of the tarrifs and will probably do to the same With wine which will keep . It is incredibly naive think we’re not going to spend a lot more on food on terrace open to put on things like oranges , tangerines , lemons grapes I always eat local seasonal produce where possible but I get would get sick of eating apples all year . round . And of course there’s always the question of why do we have to rely on immigrants to pick our food anyway ! because they will work hard in the fields often in the most dreadful weather doing jobs so people in this country don’t want to do So the next time you read some terrible poisonous story in The Mail perhaps be grateful somebody left their home to pick your fruit and veg because they often have terrible living conditions. Thankfully we have a very 2 large allotments owned by us and extended family which supplies f& v to 6 families ( not everything we need though) There has to be some compensation for living in Lincolnshire ?

Goodness me! Why worry unnecessarily now? Why wonder eh
whether tinned asparagus is as good as fresh or where it might be available? If those kinds of things are all you have to worry about, think yourselves lucky.

Plenty of people on the dole who can do the picking.

I certainly don’t think Coco is worrying unnessarily - she is living in a farming community and does KNOW what is going on - it is not hearsay for her. She is only reiterating what farmers who have been interviewed for months have been saying.
If the U.K. has food rotting in fields it will be a disgrace - no doubt a land army will be set up again with conscription to get the harvest in!!
All this about crops changing and machines to harvest may well come in the future but it takes time to change things and the machines will no doubt be very expensive and out of the range of many farmers who are already struggling.
I shall not do any panic buying should we need to move back to U.K. -( like the Eu migrants in U.K. our position is not anything like 100%certain) - but I would be far from complacent about what will be available.

Not much will change. There were migrant pickers before the EU and they'll be migrant pickers when we leave. The migrant fruit pickers near me have picked year after year. There won't be a problem when we leave the EU.

For goodness sake. We ate perfectly well before we were conned into joining what was then called The Common Market. It may be a shock to learn it but food doesn't appear prepacked by European magic on Tescos' shelf - it's produced by people called 'Farmers'. Not only that, British farmers are amongst the best farmers in the world.

But some of the migrant pickers were just moving from one part of the U.K. to another following the harvests - like the Kent hop pickers.
It must be wonderful to have such blind faith!

Why are the farmers themselves so worried then - if that were still true and they had the ability to produce so much food why are they not just rubbing their hands with glee and looking forward to being solvent again quite easily?
Apart from that climate change is changing things and weather patterns playing havoc with harvest - for the last five years adverse weather conditions have ruined our. cherry crop - nothing can be done about a late frost killing the blossom or such heavy rain that the fruit rots on the trees. Some other fruits cropped well enough but all food grown in the open is subject to the weather in some way.

Cheer up Alexa [sad ]the end of the world is not nigh
How on earth DID we survive without migrant workers?
We managed before and this country will hardly go on meltdown due to those NOT wanting to work here, not because they are being prevented from doing so. Many of our veggies and other foods come from across the channel We will still trade across the channel. If you survived 1939-45 Brexit will be a piece of cake.

PS Should be, or prevented from doing so.

Welshwife
Obesity is a burden on our NHS. I hardly think a drop in the supply of vegetables is going to affect those persons.

Hellsgrandad wrote;

For goodness sake. We ate perfectly well before we were conned into joining what was then called The Common Market. It may be a shock to learn it but food doesn't appear prepacked by European magic on Tescos' shelf - it's produced by people called 'Farmers'. Not only that, British farmers are amongst the best farmers in the world.

They are indeed good farmers. Farmers know that harvesting causes a huge surge in labour needs, and is usually seasonal. There are not enough local workers to do the highly disciplined work required of harvesters. Urban workers won't do the work as it is hard and requires leaving home and living in temporary accommodation. Eastern Europeans are willing, efficient, disciplined, and quitting the UK farms because of Brexit problems.

Farmers now doubt if they should risk planting.
True, robots can harvest pretty well but cannot handle soft produce, and are a very expensive investment.

I don't want to eat US chlorinated chicken or hormone and antobiotic-laden beef and am increasing my cooking skills for vegetarian foods.
Grandad, you and unaware optimists like yourself should listen to what farmers who are the hands-on business men are saying

Alexa this is no place to be scaremongering.
Hoarding tins of vegetables should be the last thing on anybody’s mind and there could be GNers who genuinely believe what you are saying.
What do you think we are going to “run out Of?
Get real, and don’t raise silly hares.

PS that applies to IshouldCoco - what an appropriate name.

Speaking as someone who lives in France, it is almost de rigeur for everyone to make a 'potager' (vegetable patch !) when we turned the old veggie patch in our old house into a lawn the neighbours were totally fazed,,,but WHERE are you going to get your veggies they asked ? ...the market (very expensive) or Super U, LeClerc et al ......theyshook their heads in disbelief ! Now moved again, and still ne veggies ....the neighbour's garden has every inch planted with veggies .............oh, the wife is allowed to plant a few flower tubs in the front !! Why not start a dig for victory movement as in the War...................if you are worried ...start growing and freezing now .....until the imports from China arrive

MawBroon, my original message was intended to scare and the tin of asparagus was an absurdity aimed at stirring up controversy.

The level and frequency of complacency in Gransnet about Brexit issues disturbs not only practical farmers but also others like myself who take the trouble to investigate issues from quitting Europe for Trumpland.

Don’t know why people worry about Brexit. Still hoping it might collapse but if it doesn’t I will just get on with it.
More inclined to be concerned about this government.

I have commented on here before that SIL is a partner in a Cheese Distribution Company.
They inport a few British Cheeses, the most popular Stilton and Lancashire plus others.
They are happy to import from small specialist suppliers too, knowing they are premium priced.
From one month after Brexit the prices started to rise, some by 25%.
When enquiring why, all emails came back(I have seen some of them) "since Brexit we have to raise our prices for exports to EU countries".
Why ????????? there are no changes, no tarriffs no extra taxes.
They have not raised prices of items going to the UK, so why have prices been raised coming from the UK.?
Perhaps someone in the farming industry on here can explain to us the reason for the raised prices.
Some contracts have already been cancelled and they are discussing no longer importing from the UK. They are a big company so a lot could be lost.

As I said cheap scaremongering is hardly worthy of GN.
Leave that to the gutter press.

Maw I am not scaremongering I am stating facts, this has been happening since the brexit vote, as I posted previously.
I did not want to open a bigger can of worms but it is only with English companies.
They have an excellent arrangement with a Scottish haulage company who deliver here through either Rotterdam or Antwerp. No price rises and hopefully none in the pipeline. Why?????
In 30 years they have never found a haulage company in England prepared to go to the small producers and deliver here.

Sorry, Felice my “scaremongering” comment was addressed to Alexa who started this tinned asparagus nonsense.

Most asparagus sold in supermarkets is from Spain or other countries abroad even when it's in season here (which I find annoying) so I don't think Brexit will affect supplies, just price.

Ok, it is just annoying us here, they supply a lot of Michelin restaurants and high class hotels, and they like British Cheese. it is a a high earner here which is passed on to the suppliers so they are having trouble understanding why they want to spoil things, for themselves only.
The suppliers seem to have been advised to hike up the prices before "we" bring in tarriffs. Just daft as no one knows what is going to happen.
Sorry getting that off my chest, but it is affecting a successful business which has been trading since before WW11.