can't afford to prep for brexit

[paintinmyhairAgain]

wrong board but the preppers will probably flame me, as you will might for mentioning it on here .
i was wondering if things goes toes up and there are food shortages, what happens with people who can't afford to -hoard- store up goods i.e the elderly and people on very tight budgets already living hand to mouth relying on food banks ?
any thoughts ?

And what about people who don't have gardens?

Meat: It looks like UK production is about 10% short of UK consumption. It's feasible we could domestic production, but if tariffs are lowered to zero then UK will get flooded with very cheaply produced products from outside EU (ERG says this is good thing) although would mostly destroy the British meat producer industry. 2013 Irish farmers' report into the quality of meat produced in Brazil, some problems found.

My mum got hold of some snoek once and made us have some. I think she had nostalgic memories of her South African upbringing

If you don't have gardens but have even a balcony, you can plant a couple of container friendly veg. Shop bought potatoes can be chitted and grown. Perpetual Spinach doesn't need much space and mine's growing right now . Baby leaves cut and come again for salad or sneaking in a tomato sauce. Seed saving from supermarket veg is patchy because the seeds are not always fertile. I got some pepper plants grown in pots from an Aldi bought pepper. Project Diaries on YouTube has loads of info.

I’m stockpiling. I don’t have much spare money, but everything I can afford is going on some coffee, flour, tins etc.

I am from one of the ex USSR countries and 90s were bad for us. I remember seeing empty shelves in the shops, eating some ridiculous combinations of food, because we just didn’t have anything else, and not knowing what ham is, when given some with school lunch. Cheese was a real luxury for us - once or twice a year. Meat maybe once a week if we’re lucky.
I don’t want my children to go through that, but my DH doesn’t think it will be bad. I’m hoping it won’t because I can’t stockpile to last more than 2 months or so. After that if situation is still bad, I’m going to search for a way out.

Even if you have space to grow veg, you do realise the end of March is called 'the hungry gap?' Because winter crops have finished and summer harvests are anything up to months away. It's very difficult to grow a significant quantity of food as an individual. Not that I'd say anything other than everyone should grow more veg. It's great and the more local your food, the better but it's not going to get many people through Brexit if things go badly wrong.

Veg & Fruit, 2015 data: UK is almost self-sufficient in carrot production, who knew?
Overall, only about 57% sufficient in veg. We'd have to almost double our veg production to make up shortfall.

Fruit is different story b/c so many are exotics, from outside the EU, anyway. Fruit supply could be largely unaffected, other than strawberries from southern Spain in December.

Seems like hard brexit would mean patchy supply of specific veg in future & waves of shortages happening, OR if dropped all tariffs, destruction of domestic grower industries who can't compete on price. Unless govt subsidises domestic growers which they have implied they will do, post-Brexit, (out of our tax money). But I am not sure those subsidies are allowed when trading under WTO rules. Choose your nettle to grasp(?)

@HoomanMoomin - I lived and worked in USSR in late 80s /early 90s. I remember coming back to the UK, visiting a supermarket and feeling a bit of shock at so much stuff so readily available. And I am British.

Everybody should learn how to bake bread

• if nothing else its great fun and flour is cheaper than bread and lasts for ages

Everybody should try to go for a week eating NOTHING out of the chilled ready meals at the supermarket - remind yourselves how to scratch cook

If everybody makes little changes now then next spring will be more relaxed

remember
No Deal actually means NO DEALS AT ALL WITH ANYBODY
Not just the EU
absolutely everybody
and any WTO deal can be vetoed by any one of 170 countries
as against only 27 in the EU

No Deal = NO TRANSITION
So from 11:01 pm on the 29th, lorries will not be able to clear customs, planes will not be able to land and Brits in Europe will become illegal entrants
until a deal is found

Op: just listening to R2 & very clever people ( political journalists ) are saying it will all be ok even if we crash out without a deal. Please stop listening to the scaremongering remainers, they’re talking crap. just listen to the people who actually know what they’re talking about.

I don't have a balcony or even window ledges wide enough for window boxes.

If you don't have gardens but have even a balcony, you can plant a couple of container friendly veg.

soooo - how many calories can you realistically grow in a balkony planter? and how many calories do you need daily to survive well?

@itsthemenopausenotme - if there is a particular veg or herb you fancy growing, is it feasible to put a pot on a plate with a plastic bag underneath for spills in a sunny part of your flat. Instead of, say, a big pot plant. Obviously that is not going to solve much but you will have a bit of an ego boost. Which is only a good thing.

Even if we crash out there will be food - I promise everyone that.

Xenia much as you like to think otherwise with your island (I appreciate now sold) and your amazingly privileged lifestyle, you're a self employed commercial solicitor - not the bloody queen of the world. How can you possibly promise people that?

Makes me really cross. As a fellow lawyer I often agree with some of what you post even though its generally fairly contentious (I suspect deliberately so for fun). Have a bit of bloody empathy though. Some people will really struggle if food prices rocket and there are shortages.

And before you say it yes we all know that you're normal and grounded because one of your sons is a postman...

I can afford it and I’m choosing not to do it. I can’t even comprehend bringing more things into my house that I may or may not need/won’t be using in the immediate future.
We have a big house but a big family and I have to keep on top of the shit otherwise we would drown.

@redsummershoes - no need to be sarky. Of course you can't grow much with no space to do it.
I've suggested other ideas of what a person on a tight budget with little space to store can do.
No it won't make them self sufficient, who is? I'm not.

surferjet
very clever people ( political journalists )
Who ? What are their names ?
Any why would journalists know more about the import export trade than the RHA?
Do these clever people understand the Irish Land Bridge?
Do they understand the food supply chain?
Cos that nice Mr Raab seemed not to have realised that 17% of all of the UK's imports by value travel through one narrow gate at Dover.

Radio pundits know only what their researchers write on the card in front of them.

UK is almost self-sufficient in carrot production, who knew?

It wouldn't be though if people suddenly can't get the other things they buy in addition to carrots. All of a sudden carrot demand is going to increase...

Love how the Leavers are here saying "listen to people who knpw what they are talking about" while simultaneously squealing about TM and her Brexit deal as they didn't realise what it meant.

OP, even as a Remainer I suspect all will be fine as long as we have some kind of deal which protects current trade deals.

Even if we don't get a deal we will likely be okay for a while. It's only as time goes on that the implications will bite and I suspect that will be mainly in the cost of foods. And possibly a drop in quality too.

Meanwhile I am not a prepper and am not stockpiling.

Highly unlikely that anyone here is or could be self sufficient in fruit and veg. However it is quite possible to supplement your diet significantly in the UK using a fairly limited amount of space. Even just a few things will help if there are shortages in the shops.

Radio pundits know only what their researchers write on the card in front of them

lol - if you want to call the brexit correspondent for the telegraph a radio pundit then go ahead. But with the greatest respect - I’m sure a political journalist for a major newspaper knows more about brexit than you - which is why she’s a political journalist & you’re not.

journalists know nothing more than the rest of us. If they did it would be front page news!

Out of interest though I'd like to listen to the radio programme what was it?

Lol if you think journalists are impartial. If it's Camilla Tominey you're talking about she is a massive brexiteer and the Telegraph is a hard brexit paper.

I’m a professional emergency planner shines badge Think someone asked about fuel, and our fuel needs are serviced by large ports in Wales via non EU supplies. So I’m not anticipating a fuel shortage, although any chance for a price rise and I’m sure they’ll do it.

At work I am putting plans in place for people not turning in through lack of medication / food / general disorganisation. Similar to a pandemic situation 15-25% of staff, which all adds to the melee of discomfort.

At home, small scale prepping which is no different to normal tbh.

Jeremy vine today. Very interesting, they were talking about all the possible scenarios - this deal going through, no deal etc.