Should the UK be more self-sufficient?

Why would I care that pocket parks are not like municipal parks. Someone (not me) suggested dividing 'parks' up into allotments - I just asked if those making these suggestions think we will reach the point post Brexit where this would be necessary.

All this nit-picking while you miss (or deliberately ignore) the point I made completely. Off out now as this is such a waste of time.

A lake is even better, complete with ducks.???????

The wartime diet may have been boring but it was incredibly healthy and may account for the longevity of the generation who were children and teenagers at that time. Perhaps we would do well to return to a plainer diet. And yes, I think Brexit could be the time for an overhaul of farming and food production if someone (?) had the political will.

We are very lucky Jalima but Unfortunately our lovely duck pond (well it's quite big so more like a boating lake) is plagued with those bloomin' rats with wings. Poor ducks can't get a look in.

Of course I wouldn't want UK workers to be paid the same as those in developing countries daphnedill I am merely trying to point out all of the reasons that it is very hard to effectively produce/manufacture in this country with all of the costs and legislation constantly thrown at companies. The list is endless.

Nothing to do with Brexit, we will still go on importing foodstuffs and products from Europe and around the world.
But there is an interest now in growing either at home or nearby, it's just fresher.
I doubt anyone will be digging up their own lawn ( although it would solve the problem of who mows it.)

Maybe we'll all be as excited about import of foreign fruit as this lot were:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HkYkvDoAFY

Yes, we should all be more self suffcient where possible. Quite apart from BREXIT we should be more aware of welfare standards for animals, chemical used on crops, the work taken to produce things, air miles or sea miles..........yes war time food was boring but it was rationed and we had'nt really planned for that. We can plan now.

I think we can provide a lot more of our own things and be on nature's side for a change, we have too much in the 'stuff' dept. and not enough spend on quality foods produced at home.

The planet is scarred by the ways we consume, poor bees worked to death and transported across America in lorries from one crop to the next, we don't need all that we have, as it is our wardrobes are exploding our houses cluttered.

I am sure bananas will get here somehow, but I tire of seeing apples from abroad why transport stuff when the planets suffers from it?

We need to get some quality back into food anyway, time for a re- shape of what we use all round. AND the robots are coming for farming so preserve the skills of the farmers at all costs because only they can make it all humane.

I did not think that this was anything to do with Brexit
I thought the question arose because of the drought in the Horn of Africa?

Does importing vegetables, flowers from places such as Kenya help the people there or should all that farmland, energy, expertise be diverted towards feeding their own people and their neighbours?
Are we helping them to progress or are we adding to the problems they have with the lack of food?

According to Liam Fox,we'regoing to makeour post-Brexit fortune exporting marmalade.

metro.co.uk/2016/10/03/stay-calm-brexit-worriers-liam-fox-has-a-plan-to-sell-innovative-british-jams-and-marmalade-6168089/

Hmmm! So where is the UK going to find the citrus fruit to make the marmalade?

I didn't say you should care GracesGranMK2 I was just trying to make the point that there is a big difference between the two. On a large estate like ours those underused (infact barely used as we have perfectly good (real) parks a stones throw away) pocket parks could have been put to much better use. Most now have signs up with No Ball Games, so quite what purpose they were supposed to serve I have no idea.

Not to mention the luvvies' superfood quinoa!

Green spaces improve the ecology of an area and, if planned properly, minimise flooding risk.

I love the clip of Paul O'Grady trying to pronounce it daphnedill he says something like Cwwiwwwewaaa .

Jalima They're earning foreign currency, which enables them to buy machinery, services, etc from more developed countries.

Yeah well! Paul O'Grady was born in Birkenhead (like me) and we don't do fancy food, apart from chips with curry sauce.

Why the planners allowed all of the houses to have paved fronts and backs beats me daphnedill . We have a real problem in that next door both ways and successive houses too have paved their patches front and back and as we are built on a slope the water all runs down into mine. They didn't even have the sense to make gravel soak aways. My garden is on a slope but we have created three levels (all plants, soil, grass etc and only a small patio) which thankfully absorbs a lot of the water running down hill. But heaven knows what would happen if we had a REAL flood. I think a lot of young people are put off if they think they might have to work in the garden.

daphnedill

This thread made me wonder what effect leaving the EU might have on our ability to develop GM crops in the UK. I appreciate many people are against the use of GM in farming in any event, but it has been raised as part of the Brexit debate given that the UK will no longer be subject to the significant EU restrictions in this area. I found this article interesting, which seems to suggest that practical issues would make development of GM crops in the UK more difficult post Brexit.
inews.co.uk/essentials/news/science/brexit-good-bad-prospect-gm-crops-britain/amp/

Personally I find imported fruit so tasteless, I grew my own strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries and blackberries last year and they all tasted heavenly.

We as a country have become accustomed to be able to buy all kinds of fruit/vegetables etc Throughout the entire year, when certain items are not normally in season in the UK. Do we Really need exotic flowers/foods etc available, when there are more seasonable, locally produced goods available in the UK, Just because they Are available in our 24/7 lives??!! Farmers and Growers in This country deserve Everyone 's support.

Daphnedill.All well and good to have diversity but lets face facts, what an unhealthy lot there are around now a days.
A programme on TV concerning our health mentioned living longer but on a diet of medicines to keep us going.

Recently I visited my 55 year old neighbour, I am 20 years older than her, in hospital.She had suffered a second heart attack and was told she will need bypass surgery.
In her particular six bed ward were other women and all by the looks of it around the same age as my neighbour.
My mother was 91 when she passed away. My grandmother 99 as was my great grandmother
One can only wonder how many like my 55 year old neighbour will see 80 let alone 90.

The UK is vastly becoming a concrete jungle .What space is there for growing ones own food when the majority of new builds have little or no garden at all.
The prospects of farming and growing our own food in the future is nil.
Enjoy your diversity.

Well, I'm 62 (nearly) and not pumped full of drugs, nor am I overweight. You seem to know some very unhealthy people. I don't think buying only home grown produce would make us healthier. As my staple food is salad all year round and don't eat root vegetables, I wouldn't be able to live during the Winter.

I've been trying to think of anything which doesn't involve some kind of import at some point in the production process.

Even if we have an allotment, we need tools and a fence, to keep out rabbits. The tools might have been manufactured in the UK, but the materials to make them will almost certainly have been imported.

Not only that, but it's difficult to think of anything which hasn't been transported at some point, this requiring fuel, which has to be imported.

I don't need flowers, but I do need imported salad and veg, chrissie.

Interesting link Fitzy.

I wish we had a farm shop nearby. We have a farmers market once a month but it's all speciality foods it seems to me - not milk and butter type. There is a veg section in our nearest garden centre but I don't think much on sale is actually grown in the UK! When I first married DH and I grew our own veg as we didn't have much money. It was fun but when we moved to a larger home the garden was tiny by comparison. That's one of the problems. Looking at Rightmove which I do a fair bit the gardens these days seem so very small and don't encourage growing stuff. Or is this just me not really wanting to do it?