To be surprised that some friends are buying extra food because of Brexit?

[abacucat]

I suspect that specific foods may get be in short supply for a short period of time, but there will still be plenty of food in the shops. It is not going to be Armageddon. So this seemed an over reaction to me. Or am I going to be that person in the disaster movie who is laughing saying everyone is over reacting, who ends up dead when the disaster finally hits?

But but but Misrigri, that’s just not possible. Do you not know that the French are only permitted to produce cheese, onions on strings and stripy jumpers? While riding bicycles, or so I believe. Not sure where they get the bicycles. You must leave the rice production to the rice paddies in Asia. They also have bicycles in Asia (possible 9 million in Beijing) which may or may not be relevant.

Love the sweeping assumptions made about where our food is coming from and how it reaches us (not by bicycle), as repeatedly evidenced on these threads.

I miss France. Used to go to a farm there that farmed sunflower. Fields upon fields of them.

If we can't get much food after Brexit, perhaps it will help solve the country's obesity problem?

Yep rice grown in Europe.

Anyway the Treasury is putting in place plans for emergency cash in case of disruption orruor risk to life with no deal Brexit...www.thesun.co.uk/news/brexit/8143296/no-deal-loss-of-human-life-cash/

Unlikely thenovice as I understand that research shows a clear link between poverty and obesity. I would expect food price rises to push obesity rates up rather than down.

The reason that hoarding was frowned upon in the war is that what causes the shortages is panic buying.

‘Don’t panic, Mr Mannering!’

Stockpiling basic items now is preparing, not panic buying.

Panic buying is what will happen at the end of March if we end up with no deal.

(And it’s Mainwaring, not Mannering).

I haven't seen any panicking just people suggesting that if you buy spare of items you are going to use anyway it would help protect you if problems arise which for a number of clearly identified reasons they may.
It has also been highlighted that costs may well rise so it could also be cheaper in the long run.
Our JIT supply chains are currently working without impediment so if people wanted to have s small surplus now would be a good time to acquire it.

The Common Market was a bloody fabulous idea ....

I heard Humphrys interviewing David Davis on the Today programme this morning (there’s a link to the Express reporting on it upthread). Davis, who did next to nothing for two years as Brexit secretary, calling it “constructive ambiguity” was still peddling the line that if we “stood firm” the EU would cave at the last moment. How anyone, including the BBC, can think he has any sort of credibility completely amazes me.
But this is amusing:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=rRQnUIIp-HU

Speingtime it depends which foods are in short supply, poverty and obesity flourish in certain conditions, but not all conditions

There will be shortages of food for a number of reasons - none of which are the fault of the EU, or the European farmers, producers or exporters who will of course want to continue to sell to the UK but which are entirely the consequence of the UK's decision to leave the EU.

The problems with JIT delivery of food have been described several times in the thread. If the capacity of the Channel ports is reduced by 60%-70%, there will inevitably be less food available than at present, as about 50% of the food consumed in the UK is imported, largely from the EU.

Even the food from non-EU countries actually arrives in the UK via Europe. It is shipped in bulk to Rotterdam and Hamburg from where it is put onto lorries and driven to the UK. After Brexit, these too will get held up in the queues attempting to get to the UK.

Regarding domestic food production, there are other problems to contend with and the UK has not been self-sufficient for the last 200 years.

British farm animals need food and medicines - largely imported from the EU. British animals are slaughtered and processed in factories staffed largely by EU citizens - over 90% of vets in UK food factories are from other EU countries, so if they go home, all meat processing stops.

Much of the British agricultural crops are picked and processed by EU citizens. For the last century there has been a reliance on migrant workers to meet the seasonal demand for crop harvesting and processing, so this is nothing new, but as was seen this autumn, a lack of workers meant some crops were not picked.

Much of British food is made with imported ingredients. A frozen pizza topping has cheese from Ireland, tomato paste from Italy, mushrooms from Holland, peppers from Spain and ham from Denmark. A shortage of any of these ingredients halts production of the pizza, as does a shortage of Swedish paper in which to package the pizza, and CO2 from France used to freeze it for transportation.
A similar situation exists for almost all popular foods - key ingredients are imported and a shortage of just one ingredient halts the entire production process.

[And rice is indeed grown in Europe - Europe is 70% self-sufficient in rice, growing over 3 million tons a year.]

Are you this wrong about everything?

Classic Mistigri

we as a nation have immense buying power and influence.

No the UK doesn’t, Europe does and that’s what the uk has been part of - but is saying bye bye to become a small fish in between three gigantic buying powers who can seriously turn there back on the uk in a flash - for those three uk is small fry

British animals are slaughtered and processed in factories staffed largely by EU citizens

Many cattle are transported to EU to be slaughtered and then returned to uk to be distributed as there are not enough facilities in uk

Many cattle are transported to EU to be slaughtered and then returned to uk to be distributed as there are not enough facilities in uk

This is also true, and presents the UK with a double-whammy. Post-Brexit the animals will be delayed on leaving the UK (in fact, until export licenses are granted, they cannot be exported at all - and the licenses will take months to obtain). The processed products and meat will then be held up again on the way back into the UK. Delays, permits and paperwork all cost money, causing the price of the goods in the shops to rise.

Also, I believe we don't have enough vets/officials to oversee that procedure ^.

Shame all the small local slaughterhouses were closed.

Transporting animals long distances for slaughter really boils my piss.

Havananna - but many people don’t have a clue this happens and don’t realise the impact it will have

ivykaty44 that is true, there are many countries where food scarcity and poverty do not lead to obesity. However in developed countries I believe this a pattern and I cannot imagine the UK ceasing to be a developed country and turning into Venezuela for example. I can see income inequality growing and an overall increase in food prices making us more like the US.
It is a very pernicious fantasy to peddle that people will get slimmer if food prices rise because that is not what current research shows.
Also trying to starve people into weight loss without their consent is a horrible idea.
It is going to be the most vulnerable who are impacted by food price rises and I see no signs of them being protected against this.

I agree with that Urusla I think regulations around small slaughter houses made it impossible for them to stay open ? Despite thinking leaving the EU is nuts I would imagine that the regulations were at least in part an EU thing. Something where human issues were placed above animal ones. But Imstand to be corrected on that if need be.

Springtime it won’t be the fact alone if price increSes, but food shortages and the latter may have an affect which the government step into to resolve which has happened before

www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2018/07/17/Abattoirs-in-the-UK-on-the-decline

The number of slaughter houses in 1971 compared with now 😲

I didn’t even think to do this- I think I will now. This just makes me so incredibly angry and frustrated at our country. How have we signed ourselves up for this?

It was definitely regulations that closed them.

Private Eye has covered for years the fact that DEFRA (the Department for Eliminating Farming and Rural Areas) under NuLabour gold plated with bells on the EU abattoir rules to give big supermarkets more control.

Its not the EU that caused small slaughterhouses to close - they exist everywhere else
it was Whitehall
as is the case for many of the UK's problems