Could you cope with rationing?

There's no doubt the older generation would cope much better than the younger ones who have no concept of food shortage and don't remember the days before supermarkets. I don't believe rationing would ever be as strict as it was during the war, but judging by the obesity crisis and the countless supermarket aisles of sugary, fatty, processed foods I think rationing of those things would do wonders for the health of the nation. In fact I think it's the only was the obesity crisis will ever be solved, because as long as those things are freely available people will keep buying them.

I watched my mum make meals for nine from basics. I was on my own with two children and a very low budget less is more and healthy too.

Oopsadaisy1

Oh good grief, I’ve just googled ‘Family cloth’ I thought it was about making new clothes out of old.

Wrong.

Wrong on a number of levels

I’ll add that , yes, the war between Ukraine and Russia means that our supplies of vegetable oil, and possibly wheat ( though other parts of the world produce wheat and cooking oil, including us here in the UK), are likely to reduce, but until there is a world wide war (heaven forbid), then I don’t think that we are on the edge of starvation and famine here just yet. Let’s not start panicking and scaremongering just yet.

effalump, may I ask you why you think (and where you’ve heard it from), that starvation and famine is just around the corner for us? I know that it is, (very sadly), a reality for many in this world of ours, ( and shouldn’t be), but are you referring to it being a reality for us here in the UK any time soon? Where are your facts and figures? Also, where are your figures to support your statement that most of the countries in the world are bankrupt or very nearly bankrupt? Sweeping statements such as this need backing up with facts, otherwise it’s just scaremongering.

Having been born in 1930 I am used to shortages in more ways than one, so rationing would be a doddle to me.
I was married in 1949 and we were still on rations but my mother managed to get a tasty buffet together for the guests.
Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain ended at midnight on 4 July 1954

I still remember the rationing during and after WW2. We coped marvellously as mum was so resourceful. We kept chickens and grew masses of vegetables and soft fruits. I'm not sure how I would cope but I think I would.

Of course we would cope. You do what you have to do. I'm sure that I read somewhere that people were never fitter during the war years.

I think younger families would possibly struggle more to cope with food rationing than older generations would. I had the benefit of Domestic Science lessons at school; taught how to cook wholesome family meals, from scratch, with few ingredients and within a budget. But they stopped those lessons in the 1980s I think? So several generations haven't had the opportunity to learn those skills unfortunately.

Yep.
Easier if I could grow more veg, but I could do it.

I see no reason why simple eating need be dull, or boring. Almost all the flavour and interest in food comes from the herbs, spices, and the condiments we add to it. Not the food itself.

Wartime food was dull because so was pre-war food because then, apart from mint sauce with lamb, horse radish with beef and mixed spice in festival food (hot cross buns, mince pies etc), our cuisine was almost totally devoid of herbs or spices -and a little of both will go along way.

Oh good grief, I’ve just googled ‘Family cloth"

not envy

we have not all lost those skills and yes I could manage

I’m pretty sure I’d be able to but as I live in flat growing very much could be difficult. I’d hope the local authority would release land for allotments/urban container gardening, especially those with no gardens.

For those who use food-banks, their food is already rationed and limited to what others give. Apparently it was a rather boring in WW2 but everyone had enough to live. Those in the countryside had more than town dwellers. It certainly wasn’t an easy time.

TerriBull they are rationing sunflower oil now in some supermarkets. Off we go again.
I think I could cope with rationing if I had to. In the ‘olden days’ there were often shortages in HK. Everything came in by ship, even water during the water shortage. I was only a child but can remember it.

Oh good grief, I’ve just googled ‘Family cloth’ I thought it was about making new clothes out of old.

Wrong.

Having watched certain programmes and read about how resourceful wartime generations were, obviously to even begin to emulate them, we would all have to massively adjust our lifestyles, although the mainstream population's diet of the late '30s before the war broke out was I imagine fairly simple. Many people now are used to a cuisine emanating from far flung corners of the globe and to obtaining, sometimes quite obscure ingredients and spices, we take so much for granted today.

Maybe we'll just have to dig up our gardens/parks/golf courses up and plant for food. It does occur to me me that previous generations in both sides of the family were far more resourceful than we have been in that respect, have managed a few herbs but............that's won't keep us going

I saw a man in Sainsburys the other day with a whole trolly load of cooking/sunflower oil, I didn't follow him to the till, but I did think such people cause shortages! I hope they told him to put some of it back

They live in Compounds……..

Although there are plenty of survivalist groups ( mostly in the USA) who would have us thinking that ‘it’s all about to kick off’ whatever that means.
I once lost a whole weekend after someone persuaded me to google ‘family cloth’ and ‘off grid family life’, and they aren’t even survivalists. I think the real ones do all the family cloth stuff, but add in an unhealthy amount of firearms training and fitness drills. Surviving is one thing, but if I had to behave like some of that lot I’d lose the will to live.

No……

I think we’d be ok, MrJ would struggle more than me. I grow some veg and help with my friend’s allotment, we also have a friend who shoots rabbits, pheasant and deer.
I’d rather not though.

If we're having to ration we will cope. But I don't think it will be particularly easy.

I totally agree that it would do us good.

I am confident that as long as enough food was available to avoid starvation, I would manage quite well.
Even though I wasn't born until the start of the 1960s, I picked up on my grandparents careful ways, and can make a little go a very long way, and I have always hated seeing foot wastage - like my late MiL throwing out the remains of the Christmas turkey when I could still have fed our family from it for another couple of days!

The biggest difference to rationing nowadays is that there are far fewer people who grow their own veg and as more people work, no one has the time to spend most of the day in a queue for groceries. I can’t see how the large supermarkets would allow everyone to get their fair share of rationed foods.

If we had to do it, we will have to, but I haven’t seen or heard of any signs of it, a few shortages maybe, but not rationing.
Although there are plenty of survivalist groups ( mostly in the USA) who would have us thinking that ‘it’s all about to kick off’ whatever that means.

I can cook from scratch, and am not bad at it, but I do not particularly enjoy cooking and can think of better more enjoyable ways to employ my time. I do it because I like to eat So we do have pre-prepared meals some of the time. I don't see that as any different to eating out at a restaurant in terms of quality or nutrition.

If there was to be rationing, which I doubt on any extensive level, I know I could cope and adapt. I'm a meat eater but can easily do without, cook vegetarian dishes and sometimes choose the vegetarian option when eating out.