We don't need our farmers and fishermen

What is National Identity? Which nation to you identify with?

I identify as Scottish , British and European and I feel a great sense of loss that my European identity has been diminished because of the fraudulent referendum of 2016 and the way that the enemies of our country have orchestrated events since then.

''BJ is a proven liar. Why should anyone believe a word he says?''

to be honest, I think even his most ardent supporter is beginning to realise this- but just cannot admit it ...

This article about "Singapore-on-Thames" was written last year:

blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2019/08/12/boris-johnsons-real-agenda-the-singapore-scenario/

There are many others and would appear to be on the agenda, which some of those pesky experts were saying even before the referendum.

Growstuff wrote
"We didn't feed ourselves in WW2. At the beginning of WW2, the UK imported 70% of its food. It continued importing food, fuel and raw materials throughout the war".
I didn't know that.
I can believe the imports at the beginning, but where did it all come from after that?
Even so our population has increased massively since then, about 40 million in 1940, 67 million approx. today.

There’s a very interesting article in the Guardian on the possible end of farming. It proposes that in a few years much of our food will be grown in warehouses.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/25/the-end-of-farming-rewilding-intensive-agriculture-food-safety?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I can believe the imports at the beginning, but where did it all come from after that?

That's why they had all those transatlantic convoys, Fennel, to protect the ships bringing in food imports.

Don't forget, too, that food was in short supply and rationed. Only crucial foodstuffs, such as cereals were imported (at a huge cost in lives) No-one saw any bananas for 6 years...

growstuff just imagine!
Perhaps one of these ultra-clever people will be able to invent a printing machine to print carrots, onions and apples etc too.

You may have to change your username.

I can remember when oranges first arrived after WW2!!

Yes, we do import food, but not all of it.
Our farmers fishermen and producers export a lot of food too.
Does Tim not realise that?

in a few years much of our food will be grown in warehouses.

Do you know, I remember one of our strong Brexiteers condemning places like Spain for their acres and acres of polytunnels..

What are we supposed to do with all the spare land which will return to the wild because no-one is maintaining it? What will all the redundant farmers, farmworkers and associated trades and industries do?

I'm not particularly keen on our beautiful countryside being covered with poly tunnels and food producing warehouses. I don't want it looking like something out of a Sci Fi film...

That would be another black mark against Leave voters...

We've already got them MaizieD! Visit Herefordshire.

It's not the acres and acres of poly tunnels in Spain that were being condemned per se, it was the metres deep of discarded polythene when they were no longer so use and the appalling way the African workers were treated as slaves as shown on a Simon Reeve programme.

We can plant forests and wildflower meadows.

Oh, I forgot, many farmers are already doing that, reinstating hedges and wildlife strips round all their fields.

Even a food printer would need some raw materials to work with

As it is, we have these miraculous little things called 'seeds'. Shove them in the ground at the right time of year, give them a little bit of TLC and a few months later you've got carrots and cabbages and beans and onions and a lot more besides..

Oh, I forgot, many farmers are already doing that, reinstating hedges and wildlife strips round all their fields.

All because of the EU environmental standards required as part of the CAP...ironic, really...

I'll grow a row of carrots in my garden and print thousands more.
I could become a millionaire

???

The food an drink industry is vital to Scotlands economy our reptation as a supplier of premium products is worldwide.
Scotland is the ONLY country in the "united" kingdom that has exported more than we have imported every year since records began.Our exports to EU nations were up by a massive amount last year .
Now we are expected to sit quietly by while Wm destroys our economy and for what? Anyone?

Quite a few English (Welsh and NI) people are wondering that, too, paddyanne, about the English, WElsh & NI economies...

Farmers will not be supported. One farmer I know says the arrangement is to decrease subsidies over the next few years and replace them with nothing.
He expects farms to end up being owned by large overseas companies just like a lot of rental housing is.
The family farm will soon be a thing of the past

arrangement is to decrease subsidies over the next few years

Fine, if the farmers had been told this before most of them voted Leave. But they weren't. They were assured that subsidy would continue in some form. The Brexit we're being given is nothing like the Brexit promised before the EU referendum.

Which is precisely why many of us remainers voted the way we did - because we knew they were empty promises that would unravel in the aftermath of a leave vote.

We also imported huge quantities of tinned goods from the US and Canada. That's when the British developed a taste for Spam.

We currently have a balance of trade surplus with the EU on fishing. The British don't like the fish which can be caught in British waters, so we sell it to the EU.

Apparently, in the US, it's possible to buy a whole tinned chlorinated chicken. That'll taste really yummy with printed carrots! And don't forget dried eggs!

In addition to food, the UK also imported farm machinery and weapons from the US. The UK couldn't afford to pay for it, so the Americans introduced a system called "land lease". The UK made the final payment in 2006.

Until 1942, the UK also imported from Australia, New Zealand and the Far East, although supplies were disrupted by the war in the Pacific. The Soviet Union also imported from the allies.

Despite the mythology, the UK never did stand alone in the war. It was extremely dangerous for the merchant seamen involved, but most convoys did actually get through. If they hadn't, the UK could not have continued with the war.

I wonder how many people here, who are now SO worried about our farmers, actually buy British produce in preference to foreign imports!!