Page 8 | AIBU to think the UK should have a National Food Service again? (Like we basically had in WW2)

Staybymw · 2025-12-05T05:49:53+00:00

During WW2 and for years after, the UK did have a kind of National Food Service. The government controlled prices, ran bakeries, managed rationing, guaranteed flour/milk supplies, and kept basic staples affordable so people didn’t starve. It wasn’t fancy, but it worked. So with the cost of living crisis now, rising food prices, food banks everywhere, and benefits going up because families literally can’t afford groceries… why don’t we bring back a modern version? I’m not talking about anything complicated. I mean basic, no-frills staples produced not for profit: - bread - rice - pasta - tinned tomatoes - flour - oats - basic cooking oil - tinned veg / beans All stuff we can grow or easily manufacture in the UK. If the government owned the land, the factories, and the distribution, they could: - create thousands of jobs ( more people paying tax) - stabilise food prices - make sure no one goes hungry - massively reduce the need for benefits to keep rising - put pressure on supermarkets to stop hiking prices Other countries already do versions of this: France controls wheat prices Japan buys rice from farmers and sells it back at stable prices Egypt subsidises bread for millions India has state-run ration shops Brazil provides government food baskets Saudi Arabia subsidises milk, flour, staples through state industry It’s not a wild idea lots of countries see food as a strategic, essential service. A National Food Service would mean: - no shareholders to pay - no profit margin - steady UK jobs - cheaper food - more secure supply chains - less reliance on private companies - more tax revenue from the workers it employs It could help families massively. Especially those who are working but still struggling, or whose benefits are swallowed by food prices. Given everything going on, food inflation, child poverty, constant arguments about increasing benefits, would a simple, not-for-profit national food range actually save money in the long run?

PoppyFleur · 05/12/2025 07:51

Meadowfinch · 05/12/2025 06:11

Basic food manufacture does not employ many people. A large arable farm employs maybe 2 full time. A modern flour mill, a few people at most.
Most agricultural land is privately owned, and it is best left with the farmers who know their land and can get the best from it.
We could have a basic price for flour, rice, veg, oil etc but the supermarkets only make 2% on foods now. The govt couldn't do it any cheaper.
I make my bread, buy a sack of flour from a mill every 5 months. A large loaf of good quality bread costs me about 95p. A litre of oil £1.50. Seasonal veg are cheap. We already have low food prices apart from cheese, meat and fish but they are costly to produce

Teaching people to cook, and how not to waste food would be better. We throw 30% of our food away.

This, 100 percent this!

Some people have no idea how to meal plan, budget and cook. Food prices in the UK are amongst the lowest in Europe. Yes, we have astronomical housing costs compared to other countries. However the UK as a whole spends a huge amount on fripperies.

Look at the number of takeaway outlets up and down the country that are not only surviving but thriving and the number of Uber Eats delivery drivers on our roads; the number of coffee shop chains; the number of streaming services that cite the UK as one of their key markets in Europe - surely it can’t just be the top 5% of earners keeping all of these services running?

SuckerForBread · 05/12/2025 07:50

What’s the incentive for supermarkets and shops to give up profitable retail space for it?

SouthernNights59 · 05/12/2025 07:50

Overthebow · 05/12/2025 06:30

Basic food in this country is really cheap though. The things you’ve listed, plus some other basics and ingredients to make meals, you can get them for these prices, loaf of bread £1, big bag of oats £1, 1kg rice 52p, pasta 50p, tinned tomatoes 40p, baked beans 50p, carrots 55p, big bag of potatoes £1, lentils 50p. Basic food isn’t expensive, it’s when expensive meat, fish and convenience foods are added in. So not sure government food for the basics will make much difference.

I agree with this. Some of you have no idea how cheap so much of your food is compared to other countries.

Maryberrysbouffant · 05/12/2025 07:48

Meadowfinch · 05/12/2025 06:11

Basic food manufacture does not employ many people. A large arable farm employs maybe 2 full time. A modern flour mill, a few people at most.
Most agricultural land is privately owned, and it is best left with the farmers who know their land and can get the best from it.
We could have a basic price for flour, rice, veg, oil etc but the supermarkets only make 2% on foods now. The govt couldn't do it any cheaper.
I make my bread, buy a sack of flour from a mill every 5 months. A large loaf of good quality bread costs me about 95p. A litre of oil £1.50. Seasonal veg are cheap. We already have low food prices apart from cheese, meat and fish but they are costly to produce

Teaching people to cook, and how not to waste food would be better. We throw 30% of our food away.

Absolutely.

We’d be better off bringing home economics back to the school curriculum so people learn how to cook simple food from scratch (and how to make the famous MN chicken last a week)

5128gap · 05/12/2025 07:47

Yes it's a great idea OP. I'd like to see all essential services nationalised. Unfortunately we are deeply mired in capitalism so there would be huge resistance from those who benefit from it and who prioritise their wealth over others wellbeing.

Original poster

Staybymw · 05/12/2025 07:45

Overthebow · 05/12/2025 06:46

Not sure where you’re getting your food from but I use the basic pasta and rice and it’s the same as the other supermarket branded, and tinned lentils are great for bulking out meals such as spaghetti bolognese, shepherds pie and chilli. 1kg potatoes is less than £1, 2kg £1.20.

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1kg isn’t a big bag of potatoes though. That message said a big bag for a £1 which I haven’t seen. Also the 52p rice is not the same as the supermarkets normal own brand. I have tried them everywhere as the supermarket normal own brand is about £1.30 for the same amount so I thought if this rice worked it would be a big saving but it is poor quality. The rice is broken and different lengths so you get some uncooked rice and some mushy rice even if you try the wash before method, the unwashed Delia method, the 1:2 ratio method and the boil it like pasta method.

OP posts:

ThisMintSwan · 05/12/2025 07:45

Basic food is already cheap and readily available. In fact, lots of those cheap products are loss leaders, to get you through the doors. The government cant do it any cheaper or better.
The problem we have is that people either don't know how, or don't want to cook it. There's threads on cooking on a budget every so often and it always goes the same way - people are aghast at the suggestion that they coild eat lentils or cabbage (for example) 4 times a week.

winterbluess · 05/12/2025 07:43

GentleOlive · 05/12/2025 05:53

Or we could bin the net zero fraud and grow our own food at a much much cheaper cost.

Novel idea, eh?

I'd take that. What an absolute waste of money

Original poster

Staybymw · 05/12/2025 07:40

sesquipedalian · 05/12/2025 07:01

I love the fact that the OP thinks tinned tomatoes and rice are produced in the UK. Keep the dead hand of government out of the production of anything. If the government owned the land (what are they going to do, steal it? They don’t seem to care much about farming - Ed Milibrain would have all our prime farmland covered in solar panels) then farming would become massively inefficient. I don’t understand, either, why the OP thinks that the government creating thousands of jobs to do what currently takes fewer people would somehow increase efficiency and cut down costs. Perhaps the OP should go and live in some communist country for a bit. Personally, I prefer freedom to choose. I have been very poor indeed in my life - yes, I had to count the biscuits, but my children never went hungry, and this was long before we had food banks.

You would still have the freedom to chose. There would in fact be more choice as something is getting added and not something getting taken away. What made you think it was going to be replacing all food sold everywhere?

OP posts:

NotMeNoNo · 05/12/2025 07:37

It's housing costs that are too high in the UK, not food. There are lots of other things wrong with food system (UPF, big corporations and supermarkets etc) though.

AlastheDaffodils · 05/12/2025 07:29

It’s a sweet idea OP, but it would almost certainly end up more expensive that current supermarket food.

The UK has just about the cheapest food in the developed world. Profit margins in the supply chain are razor thin. Many farmers famously struggle to make even minimum wage because prices are so low. Immigrant food pickers work long days for low wages and no work out of season.

But food is just about the cheapest it’s been in human history.

A state run service would have to pay everyone a decent wage, with pension, holiday pay and guaranteed hours. The pension would have to be at public sector levels, i.e. much more generous than the private sector equivalent. There would be no more unpaid overtime by farmers. Trade unions would get a foothold and drive wages up further, and make it difficult to fire underperformers.

These might all be good things for the people involved. But the result will be prices much, much higher than you currently pay for the basic ranges in a supermarket.

RendeersDancingTowardsChristmas · 05/12/2025 07:29

Forwards not backwards!

RedTagAlan · 05/12/2025 07:16

GentleOlive · 05/12/2025 06:46

You keep saying the same thing over and over again about stuff being cheaper and poverty being reduced if the government takes over something.

Can you name one area where the government running it has made it cheaper and outcomes better for the pouting public. Just one.

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While not a totally fair comparison really, I would argue loads of things re privitisation were cheaper. Water, trains, post phones.

And while I don't agree with the OP re having a State owned staple food brand, I do think there are valid arguments for state owned utilities.

Private utilities often get a state subsidy to operate, but because they are private they need a profit. Supplying that becomes the burden of the customer.

Just one specific example to your question is trains. Rail track, is state owned, the train operators are private ( mostly), the taxpayer pays 12 billion, funding half the industry cost. Yet the shareholders still get their cut. Yet train fare are unaffordable for many.

Rail industry finance (UK) – April 2024 to March 2025 (orr.gov.uk)

I think the water companies are the same.

Edit to add energy. I recall gas and leccy where cheaper back in the day, pre sell off ?

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/ptafpcco/uk-rail-industry-finance-2425.pdf

LlynTegid · 05/12/2025 07:16

FiveShelties · 05/12/2025 07:10

Having seen how governments perform, the thought of them organising basic food stuffs leaves me cold.

Then where would be the point of sale? Supermarkets, who would expect a mark-up to cover their costs.

mutinyonthetwix · 05/12/2025 07:13

Having watched the progress of HS2 for the past 15 years, I am not thrilled at the prospect of putting the same people in charge of making sure we don't starve.

FiveShelties · 05/12/2025 07:10

Having seen how governments perform, the thought of them organising basic food stuffs leaves me cold.

Meadowfinch · 05/12/2025 07:05

SnoopyandSweep · 05/12/2025 06:39

What nonsense. Millions lived in overcrowded slums with no gardens during the wars! My parents told me of being constantly hungry in tenements in Glasgow due to food shortages and poverty. Do you think people have time to cook properly these days who are in minimum wage work , working long hours? Do you think poor people don't know how to cook? Food - quality, good food is very expensive. And don't tell us to eat porridge all the time as I have heard endlessly - yes, it is good as a breakfast but hardly good three times a day!

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Food is not expensive and few people know how to cook basic food stuffs. I can make a decent meal with protein, veg and carbs for under £1 and in less than 15 mins, yet the takeaways are full.

AllJoyAndNoFun · 05/12/2025 07:03

I studied food security as part of my masters. A lot of these government schemes to stabilise prices involves stockpiling ( massive silos full of grain/ rice) or forward contracts for staple grains. In the majority of cases it’s unclear as to whether it would have been easier/cheaper to not bother and just give poor people a cash subsidy because predicting harvests, and therefore prices, is actually quite hard and spoilage rates in silos is high. These schemes are designed to ensure social stability ( no food riots) but they cost the government quite a lot of money that would likely be better spent elsewhere.

Also , yes, supermarkets make big profits because they are big but their margins ( profits as % of sales) are thin- like 2%. The consumer is not getting scalped. It’s just getting expensive to grow and supply food for various reasons. I don’t see that the government could do any better.

PeachOctopus · 05/12/2025 07:02

I live in Tunbridge Wells and haven’t had water for 5 days. Why don’t we start with water companies?
I’m not for nationalising things usually but 95% countries have nationalised water I think it would have support but the only drawback is that the Labour government is more interested in spending its time getting rid of jury trials, self ID, hate crime legislation, cancelling local elections etc etc.

sesquipedalian · 05/12/2025 07:01

I love the fact that the OP thinks tinned tomatoes and rice are produced in the UK. Keep the dead hand of government out of the production of anything. If the government owned the land (what are they going to do, steal it? They don’t seem to care much about farming - Ed Milibrain would have all our prime farmland covered in solar panels) then farming would become massively inefficient. I don’t understand, either, why the OP thinks that the government creating thousands of jobs to do what currently takes fewer people would somehow increase efficiency and cut down costs. Perhaps the OP should go and live in some communist country for a bit. Personally, I prefer freedom to choose. I have been very poor indeed in my life - yes, I had to count the biscuits, but my children never went hungry, and this was long before we had food banks.

GentleOlive · 05/12/2025 06:46

Staybymw · 05/12/2025 06:38

I’ve used some of those basic items. The rice is inedible, you cannot cook it without it being mushy, I have tried everything. That rice is made from broken grains. The lentils is that for tinned lentils because dried lentils cost more and those are the ones that can make a meal. I haven’t seen a big bag of potatoes for £1. Cheapest I’ve seen is £1.20 and that’s if they are in stock. The other stuff yes I’ve seen and used them and they were fine.

My point is that if there were staple items that were not for profit and price guaranteed by the government then there would always be a food safety net. Food poverty could be greatly reduced.

You keep saying the same thing over and over again about stuff being cheaper and poverty being reduced if the government takes over something.

Can you name one area where the government running it has made it cheaper and outcomes better for the pouting public. Just one.

Overthebow · 05/12/2025 06:46

Staybymw · 05/12/2025 06:38

I’ve used some of those basic items. The rice is inedible, you cannot cook it without it being mushy, I have tried everything. That rice is made from broken grains. The lentils is that for tinned lentils because dried lentils cost more and those are the ones that can make a meal. I haven’t seen a big bag of potatoes for £1. Cheapest I’ve seen is £1.20 and that’s if they are in stock. The other stuff yes I’ve seen and used them and they were fine.

My point is that if there were staple items that were not for profit and price guaranteed by the government then there would always be a food safety net. Food poverty could be greatly reduced.

Not sure where you’re getting your food from but I use the basic pasta and rice and it’s the same as the other supermarket branded, and tinned lentils are great for bulking out meals such as spaghetti bolognese, shepherds pie and chilli. 1kg potatoes is less than £1, 2kg £1.20.

Maryaliceyoungx · 05/12/2025 06:46

Staybymw · 05/12/2025 06:38

I’ve used some of those basic items. The rice is inedible, you cannot cook it without it being mushy, I have tried everything. That rice is made from broken grains. The lentils is that for tinned lentils because dried lentils cost more and those are the ones that can make a meal. I haven’t seen a big bag of potatoes for £1. Cheapest I’ve seen is £1.20 and that’s if they are in stock. The other stuff yes I’ve seen and used them and they were fine.

My point is that if there were staple items that were not for profit and price guaranteed by the government then there would always be a food safety net. Food poverty could be greatly reduced.

And you think what the government does will be high quality but cheap?? Ha - just like the nationalised train service in my area 😂😂
bearing in mind the farmers hate labour so do you think they are going to give them a cheap price??

and I’m pretty sure during the war the rice was mushy

MontyDonsBlueScarf · 05/12/2025 06:44

The UK does bot have favourable growing conditions for rice and tomatoes, it's hard to believe that producing them here would be cheaper than importing them.

GentleOlive · 05/12/2025 06:40

hamstersarse · 05/12/2025 06:15

It’s really not a good idea to let a government run the food supply.

See the starvation from any communist regime that’s ever existed. Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ethiopia.

The way you casually describe it as nothing that a government should control food supplied is pretty horrifying but at least helps me understand how communism happens so easily.

The ignorance from people on the basics of the economy really are astounding.