Scarcities

That's good, MOnica. It's also interesting that Mr Gove foresees that other EU countries will be wanting to keep their good workers . It is after all not right that the uk deprive other , poorer, countries of their hardest and most skilled when these workers are badly needed in their own countries.

As so often the question arises of how to instil sufficient work ethic into home grown workers.

Alexa, Read the following link about the seasonal workers scheme www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43127524. It should allay your fears.

Just because we are out of the EU does not mean that imports between EU countries and us will be impossible. Just that EU and US imports will come into this country under the same regime. Personally, I suspect that EU imports will still get preference. Certainly when it comes to food.

We are, anyway, already importing chicken from Thailand, where chicken farming certainly, doesn't meet UK welfare standards. Most of it goes into the catering trade, which is why I never eat chicken when eating out. This is probably what will happen with US imports.

Pork comes from EU countries and in places like Denmark and Netherlands, their welfare standards are also below ours. The simplest thing to do is only eat British meat, which is what I do.

MOnica, I'd like to be proven wrong.

What I meant about not intending to buy American chlorinated chicken, and hormone/antibiotic beef is that making trade with Europe difficult with regard to both migrant labourers and food we will be liable to imports from the US.

US food animal welfare is bad. The info about their feeding lots is hard to read about. Overcrowding of food animals causes them to become diseased. Producers therefore give them prophylactic antibiotics.

Cheap US chickens are chlorinated to disinfect them after they are harvested.

Trade with US will increase and migrant worker supply will decrease as a result of our quitting free European trade and frontiers.

I can remember going fruit picking with my schoolfriends and we all enjoyed being able to contribute to the family coffers and the occasional additional spending power. It is amazing what can be done when necessary and it can even be enjoyable when there is a good crowd involved.

I remember my brother potato and pea picking. We can do it again without EU regulations.

Maybe we should have more farms where you could pick your own fruit and vegetables, instead of relying on migrant labour?

I think (especially the young people) forgetwe existed before & we will again. Visas were applied for back in the day!

Oh, by the way, the same applies to beef as well as chicken.

I am sorry Alexa I think you are talking rubbish. Most crops; grains, root crops, industrial crops like rape and maize are cropped by big machines which are owned by the big agricultural contracting companies who use this equipment intensively and extensively. Vegetable crops like lettuces, brassica and leeks can be planted by machine and again contractors often do this work as well using specialised equipment , which, because it is used intensively and extensively is economically a sound investment. There are already schemes in place to provide farmers with seasonal workers and as these are UK schemes, not EU they are unlikely to be affected by Brexit, so workers will still be becoming over

Then you say I don't want to eat US chlorinated chicken or hormone and antobiotic-laden beef and am increasing my cooking skills for vegetarian foods. What has livestock farming got to do with farmers cropping vegetables and soft fruit? Then you say you are cooking more vegetarian food after talking about shortages of fruit and veg .

The UK is the second largest producer of poultry products in Europe only about a 25 % of demand is met by imports. No one is going to force you to buy chlorine washed chicken. You are only likely to find it in cheap chicken take aways and cheap ready meals. If you buy your chicken fresh from a reputable supplier, supermarket, farm shop or butcher, there will not be a problem.

Lastly remember that all farmers are pessimists. They all expect everything to fail. They are hard-wired to see problems where none exist. Remember the poem?

The Farmer will never be happy again;
He carries his heart in his boots;
For either the rain is destroying his grain
Or the drought is destroying his roots

Lots of factors come into play with growing your own - needing some land, weather conditions, ability to tend the patch etc. For some people it is just not a feasible thing.

It may well be scaremongering but maybe not -the farmers don’t seem to think so - and neither do the hauliers.

This thread seems to be on a par with the non news items put on the so called news programmes and apparently there is nothing like a good scare story to attract the hand wringers!

Our family priority is to grow what is possible and then to buy local/organic. We cook from scratch from necessity but the by product of that is we know exactly what is in everything we eat. Easier to stay well than get well/better and eating well is the key. There is usually an alternative to what one has grown accustomed to having and this broadens the mind and the palate. I am a baby boomer brought up by the well respected 'make do and mend/dig for victory' brigade and was well taught.

Ho:w lucky are you Maw I would love that. I think there must have been a glut in Spain as we have been getting it almost half price this year. The French variety has just started to come into the shops.

Anyway I buy my asparagus from a farm three miles away.
Always conscious of “air miles” I try not to buy from sbroad if there is an alternative.
And no, they do not employ immigrant pickets, just the family and local casual labour.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

PS that applies to IshouldCoco - what an appropriate name.

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.

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