We don't need our farmers and fishermen

MaizieD I think it was me condemning the wasteland of discarded plastic and the way the African workers were treated and I am a remain voter. Voting remain doesn't mean that I approve of all that the EU does nor that I believe other countries follow the regulations and carry out best practice. Sitting on the fence for a while before voting gave me a view of both sides.

So let me get this straight - it’s not the job of Govt to shout loudly in support of the farmers and fishermen who feed this country and contribute to the export market M0nica? No, the job of Govt is to dismiss their importance - it’s actually up to the consumer to support them by only buying British?

And just how will we do that if the Tories make it harder for us to access high quality (ie EU standard quality) homegrown produce?

Buying British, oh For God's Sake. There is a market garden minutes from me. Can I buy the produce? No.

...mostly to supermarkets...

Buying British is a complete irrelevance to what we are discussing. It's been pointed out many times that UK farmers aren't able to produce enough to feed the UK population. Haven't been able to for at least 100 years.
Buying British won't boost farmers' incomes particularly, either, they sell mostly supermarkets or food processors, who pay as little as possible for their produce.

Why hasn't Cummings hired you, MOnica? ??

If we are to judge everything on a narrowly right wing economic, ie monetary, basis. I would imagine that Parliament itself is dispensible,

The building it is based in needs about £5 billion of repairs. Why not just demolish it and build a hotel for all the tourists who would be delighted if the site included a more convenient and highly profitable branch of Bicester Village?

Get rid of those unnecessary and costly MPs, Ministers, Civil Servants etc. and have a Libertarian free for all instead.

Maybe English farmers and fishermen could find a new job....maybe knitting tea cozies! I cannot imagine an England without its farmers and fishermen. Stand up and support them.

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

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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?

???

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

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...

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..

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.

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...

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?