Momentum are getting stronger

" . . . the British beet sugar industry currently supplies over half of the UK’s sugar demand." It certainly has never been publicised. I thought cane sugar had taken over completely.

"As of this October – prior to Brexit taking effect – British Sugar will be free from a quota system which has restricted the amount of sugar we can produce and sell.

Brexit offers a number of opportunities for the UK’s agriculture industry – it should mean in the long term that our food producers will be able to go out and sell their goods on a global stage competitively.

However, it’s not going to be simple. The sugar business, like all global agricultural markets, is complex and is prone to distortions. Britain needs to put trade agreements in place which counter distortions. We must seize the opportunity to design a policy which allows Britain’s beet sugar industry to prosper outside the EU. Let’s make sure we make the right decision for growers, jobs and communities, whilst continuing to provide choice for customers."

Just found this about the British Sugar beet industry. Seems positive.

No, no, I didn't mean the natural drift off topic - all long threads will do that and I'm sure I will be as guilty as anyone . I meant the deliberate attempt to disrupt the thread - kittens and ducks come to mind.

Sorry gg

Thanks, ww. You stick to the issue rather than getting personal. It makes a big difference. My skin thickening is a work in progress

sorry, still off topic gg but just answering whitewave

They are in the garden, we have been picking for two or three weeks now.

Thank you Primrose.

jalima they are early!! We were looking at the wild ones yesterday and saw 1 black one, but they are still largely in flower

Here's the Guardian article
www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/17/uk-sleepwalking-into-food-insecurity-after-brexit-academics-say

How could you learn and expand your views if you don't hear any other than your own? Some are obsessed with their own beliefs, do not want to hear anything else and just repeat them over and over, which I sort of understand if that is all you can stretch to, but many people pull in information, facts and a broader discussion. The ones I really don't get are those trying to take the thread off topic. It's as if they are a four-year old shouting "but me, what about me, look at me, it's all about me". Why post on a politics thread when there are so many more where they can ask about and talk about themselves?

With regard to all our trade agreements at the moment in relation to fresh food. They have all been negotiated under the EU umbrella. These all become nul and void in Mch 19. We will have no trade agreements on day 1. We cannot under the rules start negotiating before that date. That is why the food security risks are so high.

WTO rules are not straight forward either and Argentina for one will undoubtedly make life difficult for us.

No, it doesn't help whitewave. The online version of the Guardian isn't the same as the paper one and I'm not going out to buy one.

I've even tried to suggest keeping threads for particular viewpoints so that there was no argument but that didn't work either.
that isn't going to work! Threads could end up very one-sided.
So many differing viewpoints and who's to say who is right or who is wrong?

But one poster did start a thread a while ago suggesting we could all try to be polite.

It's OK whitewave

I have to go and make some bramble jelly from home-grown blackberries and Fair-trade sugar, 'helping farmers across the developing world'.
Not lemonade, sorry, but if life gives you blackberries then make bramble jelly as they say.

There's a lot of information here

www.fdf.org.uk/eu-referendum-food-drink-statistics.aspx

however, just because we import tea, coffee and cocoa from the EU, doesn't mean there isn't an alternative market in perhaps Brazil and India for example.

ana front page of the Guardian today, second column, bottom of article before turning page gives you the figures. Hope that helps.

bags you are certainly posting more on the political threads lately and very welcome. But like I've had to learn over the last year or so you need to grow a thick skin. I started off probably like you expecting to be able to chat away about a particular topic, but it simply doesn't work like that. I've even tried to suggest keeping threads for particular viewpoints so that there was no argument but that didn't work either.
So I just argue away with everyone else if you can't beat 'em etc.

What a pity you still haven't learned how to do links, whitewave. This is one instance when I'd be interested to read it.

As you were with the lemon juice and sugar, etc.

Well it's from the food report produced by a couple of Universities and reported in the Guardian. I could check it on google if you like.

I wish to correct an outstanding misconception that some people have: I do not dislike Corbyn, nor do I recall ever having said that I did. Criticising some of his (or his supporters') policy ideas is not criticism of him.

That is the kind of misinterpretation that provoked me into sharper replies than perhaps I should have given to some posts. Not that I think the posts of some others to/about me are not equally sharp.

"muck raking" is a figure of speech that is not a comment on the character of the person who has raked up and displayed the information in question. It was appropriate where I used it because all that was said about JRM was negative. I'm not saying there that there is anything positive to say about him, just that there wasn't any displayed in the post(s) in question.

Actually, I like how he talks. It is clear and articulate, which is nice to hear when there is so much sloppy speech around.

I have taken on board some of the criticisms of my posts and will try, again, not to get riled by the snipiness directed at me. I think I had kept my cool until the servant comment.

eloethan, I do try to be courteous and I usually succeed. I was not being discourteous by not replying as soon as you expected to your query about the duck film. I just hadn't thought of how to answer because posting it was about a feeling I had rather than something I had verbalised.
And, yes, if people keep on saying negative things about me and keep saying things that are not true about me, and keep implying that I'm not telling the truth, I will eventually get angry and express my anger, which is why I expressed what I felt like saying after the onslaught of things like "you dislike Corbyn", "you don't have the courtesy to", "what did your last servant die of", "look it up yourself", etc.

Finally, nobody has to like every single thing about a political party to be its supporter. This should be obvious, I feel, when there is so much difference of opinion across both the UK's largest parties.

Are you sure?

I would have thought a higher percentage of fruit as we don't grow some of the fruits which we like to eat here in the UK but the shops seem well-stocked with British vegetables.

jalima yes I was wrong that's what happens when I'm typing trying to remember what I've just read.

The correct figures are

Import 80% of our fresh vegetables

And 40% of our fruit.

Sorry to confuse.

Yes, I was thinking along similar lines - green health shakes (not that they're my cup of tea, so to speak) and apple juice.

An alternative would be to hedge the currency against negative moves (so that whatever happened to the exchange rate, you can still buy your lemons for the same price in £) and use this competitive advantage to buy up all the other lemonade producers when they go out of business, as they cannot compete on price. Once you have a dominant market share and the barriers to entry are sufficiently high, you should be in a position to negotiate a better price for your lemons.

But I think solutions like that would be a bit inflammatory here at GN!

If the lemonade seller faces higher prices for lemons, could he diversify into apple juice from British apples? Has he the imagination to think up good or new ways of using local produce or adapt old recipes, the courage to experiment, the flexibility to change his production lines to accommodate fresh products?

Whoever his workforce are, he faces higher bills for employing them, both under Brexit and under a possible Corbyn government, not just wages but also the other proposed worker benefits. He will need to keep an eye on his cash flow.

(and higher prices for sugar and citric acid - that reminds me I must look out my old lemonade recipe. I've not made that since the children were young and consuming soft drinks by the gallon)