Post Brexit food

pantglas - I'm with you completely on the 'buy locally sourced and eat seasonally'. We need to support the farmers who produce closest to where we live - let's keep the 'road miles' to a minimum - the fresher the better.

Yes Remainers are full off hot air you could have a group hole to keep you nice and warm ?

Of course you all know that the French and Chinese and other foreign companies own our energy supply infrastructure.

If products like lamb and fish were not so expensive the British market would surely pick up? Instead of worrying about tariffs, why not sell at a more affordable price in this country?

Feel free to put me straight if I'm way off track but why are we importing fish when we're surrounded by the stuff?

(Sigh)

And Remainers are accused of being rude!

(not you, merlotgran)

olliebeak, How do you suggest people in inner cities source their fresh food from local suppliers?

That's why fruit/veg/meat/fish markets sprang up in London centuries ago. Produce was shipped in from all over the country and the world.

WOODMOUSE, Did you realise that there are parts of the country where there are no Morrisons stores?

I think it is reasonable to expect some disruption of supply from Europe but that’s only a part of our needs we grow a lot in the UK and a lot more comes in from further afield.
So maybe not everything you want will be on the shelves but there will be alternatives, there won’t be ration cards issued, imagine the beaurocracy in that.

merlotgran

You ask why we import fish when we are surrounded by it.

The issue of fishing has become one of the most highly charged Brexit issues. The current EU system is perceived as unfair, with vessels from other EU nations landing 10 times more fish from UK waters than vice versa.

Fishing was one of the factors that influenced my voting decision. I live in Cornwall and fishing and farming is our main industry.

With respect, I know I am leaving myself wide open to criticism with what I have said as I know that fishing is a conflicting issue with a Brexit deal.

I don't want to fill this comment box with reams and reams of information about fishing but I will end on a quote from fisherman Aaron Brown, founder of the Fishing for Leave group, who disagrees that the UK would lose out from a hard Brexit: “We regain approximately 600,000 tonnes net from a clean Brexit. Prices may drop short term but eventually they will recover as the UK processing industry also rebuilds.”

“If the UK regains what should be rightfully her resources, implements new UK policy to address both EU and domestic failings, then the future can be very bright for British fishing,”

No, but supply and demand will cause prices to rise.

The government itself (and nobody can accuse the current government of being anti-Brexit) has stated that 30% of our food is imported (more in the winter months) and it expects 50% of lorries to be delayed, which means that food will be less fresh, if not rotten.

We CANNOT suddenly grow that extra food in the UK.

That isn't Project Fear, unless people are accusing Johnson, Gove, etc of being responsible for Project Fear.

PS. Rationing would actually result in stable prices and fairer distribution, which was the objective during WW2.

WOODMOUSE, Are you aware that our own fishermen sold their quotas to fish in UK waters to foreign companies? They made a tidy sum at the time.

Foreign fishermen have bought the right to fish in UK waters. Who is going to compensate them for being deprived of something which is legally theirs?

I lived before we joined the EU. Nobody starved for lack of available food in the shops. Poor children were given orange juice in bottles if they looked malnourished and vitamin drops. In the UK farmers had fields full of crops, sheep and cattle. They were allowed to sell meat and veg as much as they could. No restrictions or quotas. Anyone remember the butter mountain or milk river? We produced too much and the EU forbade us to sell it so it was destroyed.

David Lewis, CEO of Tesco, said last month that Brexit could be a good time to "take stock".

It may be a good time for the UK to... decide, actually: what food do we want to eat, with what impact on health, with what impact on the environment. Having a food strategy for the country would be a very good outcome.

Oh goody goody gumdrops! Let's all go back to the 1960s, so some people can relive their youth. My memory of that time was of pretty revolting food, which I wouldn't touch these days.

Oh dear. Anyone else feeling nostalgic for the days of DJ and her cronies? Rude as **, but at least they added intelligence and knowledge to the debate?

I don't have a monopoly on being rude ;-)

growstuff

Yes I am aware. Amongst the fish they sell the type of fish that the UK doesn't like to eat.

I am aware about Morrisons. I gave the link because someone had questioned what newnanny had said about Morrisons selling 100% British meat ^ You're trying to wind us up, aren't you, newnanny?^

The link wasn't to infer that everyone has a Morrisons.

I'm sorry if you don't have one within a few miles of you. I've just checked and they are the 4th largest and have 491 stores. If Morrisons do this, then I would like to see the 3 top stores doing it.

Sainsburys also sell 100% British beef, WOODMOUSE, and Aldi say that all their “everyday” meat is British.

meat, not beef.

Like many others, we’re eating less and less meat these days, for health and environmental reasons. Quorn is one alternative. 100% British, and Quorn Foods are currently planning on doubling their production.

My nearest Morrisons is 19.25 miles away (just checked). I can't say it really bothers me, because I have easy access to all the other major supermarkets. They all sell 100% British beef. I hardly ever eat beef anyway and buy it from a farm, but that's a luxury I have in a semi-rural area.

I'm more bothered about the people in inner cities, who often don't have cars and only have convenience stores, and people who can't afford to pay the premium for good quality beef. (I don't mean expensive cuts, but meat which has been raised well.)

British farming has never held the capacity to feed this entire nation, and never will have. Even during the Second World War when the United Kindom had a population on less than half that reside in these islands now, and far more land was available for agriculture, Britain only survived by convoys of ships crossing the Atlantic bringing a large percentage the food Britain so desperately required.

Obviously, the leavers on this thread are untutored in the above facts or wish to ignore that which does not fit in with their ridiculous and unachievable utopian Brexit dreams.

Forty percent of all chilled and fresh food produce Britain consumes comes into the United Kingdom today on trucks via the channel ports or through the Channel Tunnel. On the best Government estimate, should there be a no-deal exit from the European Union then six out every ten vehicles will face substantial delays in undertaking those crossings. The above will mean that six thousand vehicles per day will be held at park up points unable to complete their journeys with many carrying food for our supermarkets.

At best the above will create shortages of essentials, a drop in quality, and huge price rises. At worst many foodstuffs may become totally unavailable due to a shortage of available trucks and drivers.

Therefore Brexiteers on this thread need to wake up to the substance of the above and get real.

Now, coffee break over, eyes down and back to work.

Unfortunately Quorn has an unpleasant effect on my digestive system.