War, farming and food supply

People are so jumpy about Labour being criticised.

Oh ffs, I'm sick of all this lame scare-mongering about the Labour government being anti-farmer.

I answered your question earnestly, now I realise it's just another bloody dig at Rachel Reeves.

Our government have to find colossal savings. They've aimed at closing a couple of loopholes at the expense of two relatively privileged groups who can well afford it: pensioners and farmers.

And the bleating and moaning from the right wing press is sooooo tiresome. You'd think they'd taken milk from starving babies.

The winter fuel allowance was just bunce to most pensioners, including all those I know. And as for farmers, they need to look closely at the bunch of self-interested carpet-baggers like Clarkson to blame. They've thrown a spotlight on the inheritance tax loophole by shouting it from the rooftops. Now it has to be tackled, just like all these "white collar" crimes.

Its in very poor taste to start bleating about food supply as a means of making a political point, but I guess that's where social media has dragged us.

Yeah, I'm torn on this one. We are net importers of food, but we have an awful lot more than we strictly need.

We also eat a whole load of processed sh1t which isn't even really "food". I somehow can't generate any panic over it all.

I recently realised that with climate change, crops are likely to fail more often with extreme weather events. Even then, a bad summer for one crop can be a good one for others. This year we had months of drought but a bumper harvest because of some other factor.

I have an allotment and I see first hand how difficult most crops are to grow- mainly due to pests and diseases. I'm in admiration of farners who produce great yields compared to your home growers.

I suspect whilst fresh food might be harder to get hold of, and food supply chains could get interrupted, the profit motive will mean food will still be available to richer countries like here. Its poorer or middle income counties that really seem to bear the brunt of societal collspses. 😔

That's not to say I'm complacent, but I've moved on from panicking about it all since COVID. If anything this proved to me how resilient our systems are.

😆🤣😂 I live on a UK island where, half the time, the ferries don't run! They charge ridiculous money and we are stranded here several days/weeks a year.

I don't think we'd notice if there was a war, we'd just carry on!

It might be impacting your views but as pp said probably good for a new thread.

Not really, I’ve seen it 3 times in the last 10 days

Ok that’s a bit out there.

Yes, and that is because it’s their (top) job. Not sure mumsnetters potentially getting anxious/ obsessive about it is quite the same.

dismiss it all you want, as I say, for most people it is indeed just a discussion. However, You never know who will be in hospital in 12 months time screaming about food scarcity and war with Russia whilst getting sedated.

Having an awareness of, and looking after your mental wellbeing is extremely important. As I say, dismiss it if you like, I still think it’s worth the conversation.

It’s just a discussion. NATO and others in top jobs have been talking about similar threats.

I was not a patient no. Not that it would make any difference if I was?! 🤨

trying to prep for a war that poses no real threat and worrying about food scarcity when there is no known threat isn’t “taking an interest in politics”, no. But you know best, so carry on.

The only "prepping" worth doing is to have enough in to weather a few days - maybe a week - where you are snowed in, or there is some disruption to the supply and delivery of food.

Anything beyond that and you're really just making sure your a well fed corpse.

Serious end-of-civilisation prepping would start with a firearm and plenty of ammunition and work up from there. And you can't really do that legally in the UK.

No point in prepping, if it came to a serious full scale war, it's likely to turn nuclear and then a few tins of beans will mean fuck all

Control of the food and water supply is going to be changing in the future, so this is why plans are being put in place now. Farming all over the west is changing, we're not the only country in this situation.

Yanbu - I cannot get my head around the horrific way this government is treating farmers at a time when food security is so important.

Very sobering post 😱I'm away to morrisons to stock up on tins of beans n soup.
What else should I get?

they did recently say 'uk must prepare for a war scenario' so id like to think a big part of preparing for that was food security.

That was only meant for the wealthy. Gives them a chance to get out of dodge.

No, but they did recently say 'uk must prepare for a war scenario' so id like to think a big part of preparing for that was food security. Like having an idea what it would look like and how it would be implemented. Im a similar way to how we had a plan for a flu epidemic but forgot to have upto date supplies to execute it.

That would risk evidence based policy though - illegal for centuries.

You'll have to find another way, I'm afraid.

There is a massive nuance between being a sheep and worrying about a preparing for war and food shortages in normal life.

im in a psychiatric hospital as we speak: a lot of people here speak like this. I’m sure you’re fine now. But do be aware how these thoughts can develope and be very mentally damaging. None of these people thought there was any harm worrying about war a year, 2 years ago.

Farming in peacetime is about profit, not feeding the nation. That’s why we grow barley for whisky or lamb for export. In wartime, government redirects farming to maximise calories per acre (like WW2 with potatoes and wheat). Are you suggesting the government should start introducing policies that force farmers onto a war footing now? Doubt they’d be too happy with that.

From the many who don’t stick to Labour and generally the state of conflict