to think "everyone will have the food they need" is a way of saying that food choice will be limited

[chomalungma]

It's what Gove said this morning when asked about food after Brexit.

"Everyone will have the food they need"

I am sure that's true....and who needs a wide choice of food anyway.

Yes, we will have enough potatoes and carrots, yay!

Yes, of course that’s what it means. Everyone had ‘the food they needed’ during rationing but my grandmothers would certainly have been quick to tell you that cooking and eating during rationing (particularly for the many people living in cities with no option to ‘dig for victory’) was miserable as hell.

The food I need us chocolate cheese, and pizza. With a bit of fruit and vegetables if necessary.

It might become more like the 70s/80s where there just wasn't the range of food there is now (outside cities where there were specialist food shops). Might help the obesity crisis, which has grown alongside our supermarkets and takeaways ... (looking for small mercies in the Brexit disaster).

Turnips- we’ll have lots of turnips.

Gove and his muckers will doubtless ensure they have all the food they need. The rest of us can forage in their bins.

But no Swedes. Laughs helplessly at own joke.

Yes, I think everyone expects there will be some interruption to the supply of some goods.

When you look around a supermarket and see the bundance of goods, I think there could be quite a with interruptions and still plenty to eat and a good choice. Do shoos actually need to stock 43 types of hummus?

I think we have got a bit out of kilter about what we need, what we want, and just how much more there is out there

But no Swedes. Laughs helplessly at own joke.

Oh, very good. [applauds politely then bursts into tears]

Here we go for the sunlit uplands, anyway. Adequate food for all! Yay! 🙈

It will be interesting to see what the shelves will look like.....

"It might become more like the 70s/80s where there just wasn't the range of food there is now"

Think this is the likeliest. Not actual shortages, just much less choice. If you compare say the cost/availability of things like fizzy drinks (which no-one actually needs, but people quite like to have) between the 70s and now, then you'll hopefully see the sort of thing I mean.

Being on the Fray Bentos and the Vesta curries

I'm ok.
When I was 13 I ate nothing but supernoodles for two weeks.
I've bought two boxes of the 4p ramen from Amazon so that should last until November unless I feel generous and share with the neighbours.

Well there may be enough food for everyone but the question is whether everyone will be able to afford the food they need
Answer to that is no as so many people are already unable to afford enough food (hence the rise in food bank use) and prices rising more people won't.
Add to that the fact that there has been no increase in benefits for 12 years and in fact a cut for in work benefit (universal credit) theres going to be a lot of very hungry angry people most of whom work

So not having a food choice will be good for obesity? Considering many people who suffer financially end up buying the cheapest, most filling food, don’t you? The very stuff that is loaded with fat and sugar. You do realise that thin people will also be affected by the lack of choice too, don’t you?

I always think that the people who come out with this nonsense will grasp at anything to make Brexit seem like a good choice. What’s next? Can’t get your meds? You just use herbs. People might die as a result of certain meds being limited? Sure they must have been very ill anyway and it’ll leave more food to go around.

Dear god, the excuses people use to justify the complete fuck up that is Brexit.

It is NOT going to stop the obesity crisis

It's going to make our health MUCH worse!

If prices of fresh salads/veg go up significantly then people won't be able to afford them and we will rely on cheap carb fillers

I ate a beetroot salad yesterday - it cost £1.25 from the supermarket and was 200 calories. A packet of custard creams is 300 calories and costs £0.23

Which do we think poorer people are going to fill up on ?

I'm sure I remember hearing/reading that although wartime rationing was obviously a complete pita, people actually ate quite healthily because portions were smaller, fats and sugar restricted, and vegetables plentiful, as people were encouraged to grow their own.

It will be interesting to see what the shelves will look like.....

This is what one German supermarket looked like when they removed all of the imported food.

Yup, WatcherintheRye and there weren’t as many people living in massive tower blocks and lots of people had gardens. Where do you think those on limited income are going to grow this wonderful supply of vegetables? Btw, WHO is going to plant, tend to, grow and pick all these lovely veg? I suppose it can be whatever member of the family that loses their job first.

S1naidSucks

Dear god, the excuses people use to justify the complete fuck up that is Brexit.

If you'd troubled to read my post, you'd have seen I referred to Brexit as a 'disaster'.

As for more food choices making people slimmer - look at the way people have burgeoned in size since the rationing of the 1950s ended - look at how much slimmer people were in the first half of the 20th Century! More food choice means that people eat more, it's as simple as that.

Yes, the generation that lived through rationing is considerably healthier than ones born later - it's not for nothing that you occasionally see commentaries about how the subsequent generation will not live as long as their baby boomer parents.

But no, a brief interruption to the supply of foodstuff will not recreate the health benefits of rationing (which was planned in entirely different circumstances, at a time with a totally different wartime spirit). Nor is it likely to do much about the obesity crisis directly. It might do indirectly if it gets people thinking about their consumption in the many years of oversupply that we have had.

Yes, point taken, but if those that can, are encouraged to grow some of their own produce, isn't that likely to mean more to go round for everyone else?

There'll be a glut of barley and mutton that farmers won't be able to export - so good news for medieval diet enthusiasts

The food choices will be most limited for those on a small income. People will eat the cheapest they can afford, which is usually the crappy, sugar and fat laden food. You’re talking as if the only food that will be limited is the unhealthy food. It’s the fruit and veg that will be limited and expensive. How does that match up with people getting slimmer?

More food choice means that people eat more, it's as simple as that.

It's not. Obesity is not just about eating too much. It's also about what you eat.
As pointed out, a lot depends on what choice there is and what choice people can make. Processed and junk foods full of salt, sugars, etc. didn't exist at the end of rationing and if fresh fruit and veg (which many people did eat in the 50s and 60s) are unavailable or become even more expensive compared to less nutritious but more filling options, there is no guarantee people will be thinner. Even more poorly nourished, yes. With a return to health problems relating to lack of vitamins that were prevalent in post-WW2 Britain.
If your diet is based on potatoes, you're not necessarily slim and healthy.