Is Jay Rayner right about Brexit? Is Britain just ‘nine meals from anarchy’.

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www.jayrayner.co.uk/news/michael-gove-asked-me-to-a-meeting-to-share-my-expertise-i-declined-instead-ive-given-him-a-piece-of-my-mind/

Two articles here. Further down is the article in the printed edition of the Observer today (can't find digital edition)

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"A few years ago, when discussing food security in the UK, Lord Cameron of Dillington – a farmer and first head of the Countryside Agency – said Britain was just ‘nine meals from anarchy’. It would take just three days of empty supermarket shelves, just three days of meals missed by hungry children and despairing parents, for the country to descend into massive civil unrest.

When I first heard that statement I regarded it as an interesting and diverting piece of hyperbole. Now it feels to me like a prediction."
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It's a very interesting article

I already liked Jay Rayner, and he might have just joined my list of heroes.

He may well be right, but this has been brewing long before brexit. Same as our knife edge energy supply ( the EU has partly contributed with one size fits all directives which sensible countries ignore, but the fault is really at home)

Our food and farming policy needs a shakeup regardless of Europe.

I was going to come on and say he's an arse but... I agreed with every word of his article. I write as a farmer.

I haven't read the article in full but I am generally speechless we import anything from n. Zealand which is thousands of miles away. Why we don't eat more seasonally, except for when it is unavoidable, always amazes me.

the EU has partly contributed with one size fits all directives which sensible countries ignore

I see you have such a strong grasp of EU law-making that perhaps you should give David Davis a call and see if there's a position for you in the team?

Why we don't eat more seasonally, except for when it is unavoidable, always amazes me. People have got used to getting everything they want all year round. They just don't care. They want cheap milk and don't care that British milk producers are going out of business right left and centre. They don't care that factory farms will become the norm here.

I haven't read the article in full but I am generally speechless we import anything from n. Zealand which is thousands of miles away.

Because it can be done cheaper ?

Also I suspect a lot of English sheep are bred for wool, which is worth more than meat (you can get several fleeces as opposed to a single lamb ...)

A few years ago I had to do a bit of research, and I was taken aback that it could be cheaper to ship something 12,000 miles around the world, than then deliver it to a factory 50 miles from the port.

Sounds about right to me.

Rayner is extremely well informed about the food industry, so I think he's probably right. He almost certainly has a better idea of what's likely to happen than Michael Gove does. Unfortunately, Gove doesn't have a very good record of listening to people who are better informed.

It might be cheaper but how is it sustainable? The amount of fuel alone is phenomenal.
It is an environmental hazard too.
Plus how many preservatives are required to keep an apple fresh travelling that distance? I am not saying the uk farmers are organic but at least buying close to the source makes some logical sense.

Wouldn't it be true for a lot of countries, not just Britain?

Unfortunately, Gove doesn't have a very good record of listening to people who are better informed

So true

It might be cheaper but how is it sustainable? The amount of fuel alone is phenomenal. It is an environmental hazard too.

Have you any idea how much energy we use to grow stuff in this country ?

Also I suspect a lot of English sheep are bred for wool, which is worth more than meat (you can get several fleeces as opposed to a single lamb ...) No it's the opposite. Wool is almost useless in terms of profit.

YABU to link this (entirely) to Brexit.

No it's the opposite. Wool is almost useless in terms of profit

Every day is a learning day

I was told that even at the height of the industrial revolution, Britians wool exports were worth more than machines.

(Remembering why the speak of the HoC sits on the "woolsack" ...)

I will helpfully give a typical mumsnet brexiteers response:

"It will be difficult but i believe in about twenty years everything will be great."

There.

"It will be difficult but i believe in about twenty years everything will be great." I know. I almost wept after the ref but now I pretend I'm a Brexiteer. It's my coping mechanism.

Don't get this story, is she really suggesting that after Brexit we are all going to starve to death in 3 days? Isn't that even worse than the claim that it would start WW3?

histinyhandsarefrozen

How does that in any way help the discussion?

Sorry, silly me - this is mn and the eu is totally perfect. Ever lived abroad, or worked there? Remember the business with the French and british beef? Aware of why wind power is useless onshore in the UK but not in large flat empty countries? Know anything about the Greek economy?

Lots good about the EU, but lots wrong. Except on mn where the very idea makes you a flat capped racist.

One more that London won't notice - the protected newt species that stuffs up countryside regeneration and jobs. The newts are indeed endangered on the continent, but doing very well and common as muck in Britain which has a different ecosystem from places 500 miles or more south.

Yep, apparently it would only take 3 days for civilisation to break down.

Do you not remember the fuel crisis in the early 2000s? Queues forming at petrol stations within hours, and then the punch-ups at the pumps started....

"It will be difficult but i believe in about twenty years everything will be great."

If the definition of "great" means becoming an insignificant colony of the USA then yes we will be Hugely Great!..Tremendous!... The Best!... Fuck.

Apples keep for months in the right conditions. If you enjoy a good old British Cox's orange pippin in April, it's most likely to have been picked before Christmas.