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?

I'm stocking up on rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes, jars of pesto, beans, peanut butter, olive oil, bread flour, yeast, and some nuts and seeds. DH is taking Brexit into account when thinking how to plant the garden this year so we'll be fine for lettuce, spinach, cabbages, and other summer vegetables (I learn to loathe courgettes). Some of our neighbours also have veg patches and I'm trying to suggest we get a bit of a co-op going but he's not keen as he doesn't want to feel under pressure to produce . I did point out that the pressure might be coming from me and the children!

It will be inconvenient, and I particularly worry about fruit (we largely eat seasonally but bananas and grapes are staples), but we'll manage!

@howonearthdoyoucopewith3
AMEN

But if people can't get fresh fruit they will buy the tinned fruit, so then tinned fruit is also more difficult to get hold of and thus more expensive..

that's true, but the longer life fruits/veges should be fine, apples, oranges, carrots, potatoes - it will just be stuff that has a short shelf life. Unfortunately there are probably plenty of people that will panic buy tinned peaches because they can't get strawberries for a week in March. That is what will cause the problem.

A research lab is entirely different to a production facility. Unless the drug is produced in tiny quantities there's no way a research lab could meet the needs of a population.

I'd like to know where all the production licences are supposed to come from or how they're supposed to be granted in such a small period of time.

If stockpilers cause panic now, maybe somebody will fucking sort Brexshit out before it actually hits the fan.

Just to advise you @Troels , while I am sure that banana growing countries will see is as a market that they want to sell to, our current trading arrangements with them were made as a member of the EU. We will have to make a new deal with them. Not saying we can't, I'm just saying it isn't necessarily going to happen overnight.
But if you were a trading partner would you offer better terms or worse terms than the one you have with the EU, bearing in mind our economy is going to take a hit and we will be in a weaker negotiating position.

@bellinisurge you've just made me think....sanpro and toiletries I stockpile on deals so we're good for months there but I do need to stock up on painkillers, and other basic otc meds as I have no idea where they are made.

Also, I'm not a fan of uht, but nut milks are alright. I'll get some almond milk in......

What's the risk to Ella's kitchen and Aptamil etc?

It isn't as simple as saying that bananas come from south america or the caribbean or south africa. Its about the goods rotting in the lorries due to the delays at the ports etc. Doesn't matter where they come from.

And neither is it as simple as saying the UK is self sufficient in carrots. it may well be at the moment because people also buy peppers and tomatoes and aubergines etc. But if they are struggling to get hold of these they will be buying more carrots instead. And then all of a sudden we are no longer producing enough carrots to supply the country's needs...

I had a look in my fridge.
Grapes-Peru
Cherry toms - Morocco
Potatoes, carrots - Uk
2 veg from spain
Not bad (but bit sad that it's all being ferried from so far)

I'm in Ireland, but will be stocking up on things that come in from abroad like tinned tomatoes, pasta. Even if there's no actual shortage, it will be caused by panic buying.

The Beast From The East led to so much panic buying of bread here that memes were all over the place.

@oh4forkssake - I've been adding a carton of almond milk to my Aldi shop for several weeks now. And other stuff.
As for sanpro, it might be an idea to consider reusables. Loads of patterns online and ideas for using old T-shirts towels and fleeces if you don't want to waste money on specific fabric.

Surely it isn’t just food imports from the EU that would be an issue. If ports are backed up because they suddenly have to process EU imports then how will anything get in from anywhere. The same for airports, assuming “no deal” actually means “some deals on things like keeping airplanes flying”

That's kind of the problem @Inniu . I wish people would get it.

@cloudtree just said what I was about to.

At this time of the year, bananas, grapes, blueberries, cucumber, satsumas and lemons are from outside the UK. Everything else we eat is grown in the UK. Out of the above, we'll really miss the bananas and the cucumber. We can certainly cope without the rest. For taste reasons, and more lately for environmental reasons, we've been keeping our produce seasonal (DH and I are like a couple of kids waiting for Christmas at the end of April waiting for asparagus to show up). If you work at it, it's easy to get used to. My Mum pointed out that she thought it was good that none of our veg at Christmas was from outside the UK. I hadn't even noticed! That was potatoes, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, sprouts and red cabbage.

@Fortunesfave I buy breadmix because you can just shove it in the breadmaker with some water whereas otherwise you have to measure out flour, salt, yeast, milk powder etc. It means I can easily ask someone to set it off if I'm not home. I also prefer the grainy breads so that would be another thing to measure out. It's just easier.

Did another big shop this morning- got a load of halloumi and feta with long dates as well as a few tins, flour, biscuits etc. None of it will go to waste if all is ok, it’s mostly stuff we will eat and the odd thing might go to the food bank.

But there will be food available, esp produce from the uk. We need to start eating more seasonally/locally. Making stuff last etc for environmental reasons anyway. Maybe this will be a positive byproduct from Brexit.

If there’s fuel shortages, maybe people will walk more, get public transport, wfh, buy from the high street rather than big out of town centres. People need to stop living how they’re currently living to save the planet.

If you can’t get pasta, buy some British potato’s, can’t get french cheese buy some Wensleydale. No french wine? Buy some British

If Iceland can grow berries year round in their climate then why don't we? The lack of food security in this country should be a scandal

Iceland can heat massive greenhouses with geothermal energy, but it's only in the last few years that Iceland has experimented with growing berries - back in 2010 there was no commercial outdoor berry growing and only one grower producing strawberries. Berry production is still seasonal though.

British people like to think that they will act in a stoical way towards hardship - in reality, we panic bulk buy when it snows and the press report they might be some minor distruptions in supply. We all queue to fill our cars when there's reports of slightly less petrol, but enough for normal demand (therefore creating extra demand and shortages).

I don't want to have to join in. So I'm slowly adding something each week to the food order and filling the freezer.

Me too Juells. Sensible I think given lots of our products come directly from UK warehouses so delays can be expected plus some price hikes seem likely. It's not that I'm overly concerned but I really don't want the hassle of going to a supermarket when people are panic buying. I mean those bread memes were funny during the beast from the east but then of course I had bread !

I think it's all very well people saying eat home grown food but in order to do that we have already had had to have planted sufficiently more to cover the drop in imports. Carrots and potatoes don't magically suddenly appear in fields. Apples have already grown and been picked. What we have in the country is what we already have. Only a quarter of the fruit and veg we eat is grown here.
www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-and-supplying/categories/fresh/fruit-and-veg/three-quarters-of-fruit-and-veg-eaten-in-uk-is-imported/548771.article

Deadbudgie - unfortunately, March to May is what is known as the Hungry Gap (I didn't know it had a name until reacently!) - it's the gap when winter crops have finished before the early summer ones start up again. Places that do veg boxes always suspend their "British production only" boxes for this period as it's when we need to import to get decent quality food.

It's the worse time to be doing this. I'm stocking the freezer.

To people saying eat produce grown within the uk, the months from March to the end of May are known by gardeners and allotment owners add the hungry gap. Stored winter crops have been exhausted and nothing is ready to harvest until may. I saw a UK veg box seller on Twitter say yesterday that they stop selling their locally grown only box during this time add they cannot get anything to put in it. Fresh UK grown food will not be available, as it hasn't finished growing.

Great minds ordinary snowflake