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?

Nobody is suggesting a conspiracy where doctors are asked to lie [Hmm]. Your particular doctors are obviously just rather ignorant about the potential issues or else are trying to prevent people worrying.

Nobody knows the situation. But those who have looked into the potential issues are able to assess the risks and potentially take steps to try to mitigate worse case scenarios

If I was in the UK I would be gently stockpiling, mostly because of likely cost rises.
Plans are being made to stockpile food for sale but warehouses aren't cheap and alongside the price of ingredients going up and the pound falling in value food prices could rise quite a bit.
Having food like olive oil and more expensive jarred and tinned items could be a decent money saver. The cheaper basics would prevent stress in case of a frantic few days in the event of a no deal.

"cloudtree" what is meant by government sponsored reassurance then? And doctors forced to sign Non Disclosure Agreements?? Both have been mentioned?? Please explain?

What should I buy ??

Nothing you wouldn't eat normally.

Just extra ofwhat you eat regularly. Plus perhaps flour and yeast.

The aim is not to buy things that you are going to groan at eating.

Trying to find the thing I saw regarding Doctors. I'm not into conspiracy theories or distressing innocent parents and children as it happens.

Here's something from Brexit supporting The Express about Pharmaceutical NDAs. www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1040771/Brexit-NDAs-Prime-Minister-NHS

There are also the reports of Matt Hancock telling cabinet he couldn't guarantee people wouldn't die in a No Deal scenario.

They've gagged a lot of businesses and industries. Everyone else is keeping quiet so they can quietly move business out of the country.

I don't trust them at all. Maybe that makes me a scaremongering conspiracy theorist and if so, I apologise. It's just nothing they've done so far has filled me with any confidence, including this morning's lorry stunt.

I'm British in Europe so not stockpiling. Almost certain that my mum who lives in England won't stockpile either, as she refuses to follow news on Brexit (I suspect she voted leave and is now horribly embarrassed about it; both her kids are directly affected by loss of FOM). As a result I'm considering booking a cheap flight for her in mid March, just in case.

Nobody is suggesting a conspiracy where doctors are asked to lie [Hmm].

Doesn't appear to involve doctors at all - it's 16 drugs companies and 10 trade associations;

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/23/pharmaceutical-firms-preparing-no-deal-brexit-ordered-to-sign-ndas

The good news is;
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary said he was arranging for special flights to bring medicines from the Netherlands to beat anticipated shortages

Not sure about stocking freezers...

Only last week, we had a power cut for 8 hrs, now need to eat most of my freezer content as it got semi-defrosted

I lived in Argentina during the crisis years, half empty supermarkets, high prices, lots of power cuts, but you just adapt....

It won't be half as bad here

If the govt can't handle the epi pen shortage now then how are they going to manage with a no deal and delay on medication coming through.

Not RTFT but have been buying extra supplies for a while. I have mainly ensured we have medical supplies, cosmetics and loo roll.

Also buying tinned fish and fruit, and have a reasonable amount of rice, pasta, soup mix etc.

Not sure I could stomach longlife milk even if I couldn't get fresh :(

Am also ensuring will have plenty of chocolate, wine and porridge oats. Fortunately Brexit day is not long before Easter, the shops will be full of Easter eggs so I guess we can all live on those for a bit...

Only pharmaceutical companies should be stockpiling medicines - currently a rolling 6 weeks supply for 6 months I believe.

Pharmacists have been warned since August that any over-ordering of medicines would be “investigated and followed up with the relevant chief or responsible pharmacist directly”

www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/news-and-analysis/news/dont-stockpile-drugs-for-brexit-government-tells-community-pharmacists/20205360.article?firstPass=false

If your friendly, local pharmacist tells you that he's been stockpiling an extra stash of drugs out the back - you should report him!

If those who can store food do so
it will take pressure off the shops when the unprepared cotton on

Red tooth, the milk to make British cheese could come from British cows???

I think the main issue is that there has been ahead in the sand approach to Brexit. We should have been planning for no deal right from the off, rather than the final 6 months. We could have negotiated better then. Tbh in a 2 month “hungry gap” if people didn’t go mental there would prob be enough frozen veg and canned veg to see the country through (and certainly would have if we had planned for no deal). You might have to amend your requirement for a certain type of vegetable. Any disruption is likely to be minimal/short lived anyway.

Food prices might go up, but then mostbritish farmers would say it’s been under valued for years. May be if food was more expensive we might eat less of it!

We need to rethink our approach to food and consumerism in general, I see this as a good opportunity to do it (although heaven forbid anyone would think anything positive could come out of Brexit)

Harpingon
The research labs already produce this drug (for research) and are licensed to do so, they are also plenty big enough to supply our needs.

I don't know what that's in relation to. Which drug? Searched back but couldn't find it.

I wonder sometimes at people's motives for wanting to scare people who are already having to deal with illness etc. There has already been a poster on this thread who thinks her relatives are going to die.

The Irish government is worried about drugs not being available, and has issued guidelines. I just googled to try to find them, but got sidetracked when I came across this www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/pharmaceutical-firms-preparing-for-no-deal-brexit-ordered-to-sign-ndas-1.3740999

🤐

IIRC our Health Minister said that we always have a 3-month supply in hand, so they're hoping by 3 months after Brexit the dust will have settled.

@Deadbudgie , you really don't get how food supply and distribution works, do you?

I am gonna do a supermarket order in a couple of weeks of tinned/dry food about £100 worth that I will eat anyway.
Cat/dog food is already well stocked up as they will make my life hell if they aren't fed!
I would prefer to feed them over myself as they wouldn't leave me alone if I'm even 10 mins late for their breakfast.
Reminds me, also need to stock up on cat meds.

This thread has got me thinking! I’ve always been organised and we generally have enough ingredients in to last the whole week. I cook from scratch most of the time.

I’m going to start ordering a few extras with my grocery shops, rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes etc. Plus household stuff e.g. loo rolls

We grow a lot of veg at home and have lots of winter veg still in the ground or in tubs, potatoes, parsnips, carrots etc. I’ve got more seeds than the local garden centre so will start planning what to grow this year. One of our beds is dedicated to strawberries so we will have plenty of those, plus we have raspberries and an apple tree. What I must do this year is make my own tomato base and freeze it, it’s seems silly buying tinned toms when we generally have about 20 tomato plants in the garden each year and end up giving lots of toms away!

Thanks for the post, lots of “food for thought”!

Bellin - go on enlighten me then

The thing with us growing more veg here ready for March also begs the question who is going to pick it? The majority of pickers are here from the EU under FOM. Last year fewer came because of the fall in the pound and some farmers were having to let food for in the fields. This year there will be no FOM at all.

We all have cupboards full of food we let go out of date
No, we don't all have this. It never happens in my house. I hate wasting food.

Susan.

The hungry starving people who want to eat the food maybe an idea a bit like errr pick your own or maybe I’m thinking of the blind obvious.

Unless the starving are really starving as they ran out of £1 pizzas and frozen kebab meats and fish fingers because they don’t do fruit and veg.

It's the frozen veg I'm stocking up on to see us through the Hungry Gap in case of Brexit. I'm amazed more people don't know about it as a concept. But then again, I was amazed recently in a restaurant that prides itself on seasonal British produce and was offering me asparagus. In December.

I'm currently clearing our freezer so I can stock up with veg in particular. Meat we can do without and the I have space for the store cupboard stuff but it's veg that worries me.

The hungry starving people who want to eat the food maybe an idea a bit like errr pick your own wink or maybe I’m thinking of the blind obvious

Well which people chillpizza? The elderly? The disabled? And how people get to the parts of the country where crops are grown? Will they give up their normal jobs? Who'll take care of their dc or should they take them out of school/nursery and bring them along? Could you or most of the public identify a baler or a thresher or a harvester? More importantly have you any idea how dangerous farm machinery is?