so, when will you be starting stockpiling I wonder?

Yes
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/09/lack-of-migrant-workers-left-food-rotting-in-uk-fields-last-year-data-reveals

But food is already going to waste because there’s noone to pick it.

Is this actually true?

Some food can’t yet be picked automatically- plus can all this automation be in place in a few months time?

No, probably not. But you weren't supposed to take what I said so entirely literally. Sorry if my tongue in cheek wasn't obvious ?

gillybob Wed 01-Aug-18 11:59:09
I'm sorry to hear that is happening already gillybob

It was a scenario that I was imagining could happen later on as we neared B-Day but not already.

I hope some of it goes out of date before the stockpilers can eat it.

Chewbacca thought I had already posted this but this the recipe I use for preserving lemons. www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/preserved-lemons-231570

Some ideas of stuff to do with them (I swap them in for fresh a lot of the time, lovely deeper flavour, they are a godsend in a slow cooker dish)

www.seriouseats.com/2016/04/preserved-lemons-salt-cured-canning.html

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/dec/05/preserved-lemon-recipes-batch-cooking-get-ahead-rosie-birkett

Exactly lemon but it seems that some "idiots" are already doing so..... "I'm alright Jack"

If only the idiots would stop stockpiling tbere would never be any real shortages!Real or imagined.

I agree that we should not 'worry' about what has not yet or might never happen. However I feel it is eminently sensible to look at all possible scenarios. To listen to those in the know and the fears of those who will be affected one way or another and use that information to direct discussions & decisions that will least disadvantsge the majority.

Some food can’t yet be picked automatically- plus can all this automation be in place in a few months time?

But food is already going to waste because there’s noone to pick it.

Yes, I am too Baggs but it just goes to show what scaremongering of this kind can do.

I'm sorry that is happening, gbob.

The Newcastle foodbank is already seeing it happen though. Donations of tinned and dried goods are down massively as they feel that people who would normally donate such things may be stockpiling them for their own use.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Time to bring on automated picking perhaps?

Yes, I'm being a bit flippant, but only a bit. I don't see the point in worrying now about what might never happen.

But don't you agree Baggs that when that smaller choice of fruit and veg becomes less available the prices will sky rocket and those at the bottom of the financial tree will suffer as usual?

I agree that that's a possibility, gbob. But we don't know if it will happen. Which answers your second point as well.

But we import over 50% of our food. Some of that is inessential, but it’s hard to say it all is. Plus a lot of fruit and veg grown in this country is produced via imported labour, farmers are already complaining about food rotting in fields because there’s no one to pick it. At the very best, food prices are going to rise.

But don't you agree Baggs that when that smaller choice of fruit and veg becomes less available the prices will sky rocket and those at the bottom of the financial tree will suffer as usual?

Also (not directed at you Baggs) the biggest foodbank in the country is very worried that if people do selfishly start stockpiling and fresh food does become harder to get and more expensive then they will be forced to close. Where will that leave the poorest in our society?

our

A somewhat smaller choice of fruit and veg, should it occur, isn't going to do us any harm. It's only recently—during ur lifetimes—that the choice has been so wide.

janea, I am fully aware of the history of the Irish famine. While the potato crops were healthy, Irish peasants did have enough to eat and good food too, which potatoes are. That's why the potato blight was so devastating, along with bad decisions by the British government which exacerbated the problem.

Whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, I doubt that anything like the privations that those people suffered nearly two centuries ago will be visited on us. Exactly. Talk about stockpiling and food shortages are ridiculous fear mongering. We have an obesity problem because food is over-abundant and we have not adapted biologically to deal with that uet, as I've said a few times on GN before.

My point was that carbs, per se, do not make you fat. Too much food does that. I also disagree with the implication in your post that filling up with bread and potatoes (or other high carb staples) is a bad thing in general. It's what human beings have done and still do ever since they invented farming.

We don’t “own” any fish- they can swim from one national water to another. Anyway, a large % of fish caught in our waters are exported to the EU- langoustines etc

1845-1849

Baggs Irish peasants lived on potatoes and not much else without getting fat

Irish peasants were thin because they did not have enough to eat. The composition of your diet is irrelevant if your calorie intake is insufficient to meet your energy requirements.

In the Great Famine of 145-1849, a million people died. The population decreased by 25% due to mortality and emigration. (Source Wikipedia).
In Boston, there is a moving statue of an Irish immigrant family dedicated to those forced to make the journey to America to escape starvation.
There were other famines too. Don’t tell me that the rest of the time, the population of Ireland didn’t suffer hardship and hunger.

Whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, I doubt that anything like the privations that those people suffered nearly two centuries ago will be visited on us.

Yes, I suppose if we run out of food we could turn to drink - our drinks cabinet is stocked with stuff that has been there for years - origins forgotten in the mists of time.

Grandad 1943.
Seems that the starlings are a danger to road users, perhaps the local Council should fine them for obstructing traffic.
Seriously, it is a fantastic sight to see them just before nightfall when they are going to roost. Nature is wonderful. Biggest mistake was humans!