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.

plus some food companys have openyl ome out and said to make this work they would then have to hike their prices by up to two thirds.can you even imagine this.

I give up to be honest. It's not patronising to suggest that complaining that you can't buy goods that we don't grow or make here for a while is going to be a disaster or that some people would rather moan that they can't buy their jar of pimento peppers in olive oil than make something with ingredients that will be readily available.

I guess the point is why the feck should we?

Right now we have working food supply chains. We're not being bombed by our neighbours, nor dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster. And yet here we are taking about how food shortages don't have to be a disaster as long as we prepare.

So how about we don't fuck with our existing trade agreements, don't fuck with the existing supply chains and therefore don't have the fucking food shortage in the first place?

well if all the labour MP had voted for Teresa Mays deal we would not be in this position would we? And I don't see how you can negotiate if you withdraw the threat of no deal - the EU will just walk all over us .

And BTW I voted remain . I am just fed up of the whole mess . We should have had a coalition government months ago to get us through the crisis . Because that's what it is , a crisis . If we have a general election there looks like more confusion - conservatives will push through Brexit to honour the vote , liberals want to very clearly remain , Labour? tbh I do not have a clue ? Are they in or out? Their leader is playing at being some kind of organiser of student protesters - obviously re-living his youth . What a choice .What a mess.

Our problem isn't really about being in or out of the EU, it's having fuckwits that can't negotiate their way out of a paper bag that is the problem. We've shown ourselves to be weak and dithery and they've taken full advantage of that and I honestly can't blame them.

The Leave campaign's lies and fantasies have been found out. You can't negotiate when the other party can see your hand and can see that the UK didn't hold all of the cards (other than Mr Bunn the Baker and a donkey from a game of Snap). The German car makers and Italian prosecco growers didn't bang down the doors of Merkel's office demanding a deal; it has taken 3 years and 'the easiest deal in history' is actually further away than it was in 2016; other than Trump, who thinks he's already bought the country by financing the coup, nobody except the Faroes has been queuing up to get a trade deal with the UK. Oven-ready puffins for Christmas this year?

Haven't read everything here but can't really see how growing your own veg would make much difference as it wouldn't be imported anyway.
Of the 10 veg in my fridge/ freezer/ cupboards and 2 types of fruit only bell peppers might be hard to come by. Plus maybe butternut squash? Not sure where it is grown.
Also doubt very much that Brexit will contribute to obesity. Its always been the case that eg biscuits are cheaper than some veg.

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

Spoken like a Brexiter.

It is endlessly fascinating to me how the narrative has shifted from 'There will only be upsides to Brexit'/'We'll have a glorious future/be great again' to 'Everyone will have the food they need', Ann Widdecombe's 'we survived WW2 didn't we', and tosh like this.

Marmite17 just because a vegetable type grows in the UK doesn't mean enough is grown to feed the population. Look at the frozen vegetables in your freezer. Just because they could grow in the UK doesn't mean that they did. Your broccoli probably came from from Zimbabwe or Spain, your apples are more likely to be from South Africa or the Netherlands - the non EU stuff probably still came in via the EU - have you checked?

The UK imports over 11 billion pounds worth of fruit and vegetables and only exports 1 billion pounds worth.

and all the other countries are going to dump their produce in the sea rather than sell it to us?

It will get dumped if it goes off in the trucks before it can get to the UK, but in reality they'll sell it to each other, just as they do now. An increased supply of fresh food will benefit consumers in the EU as it will keep prices low for them. If prices fall too low, producers will either refrain from growing as much and/or switch to other crops and find other markets. For example the Danes have long since taken action to mitigate Brexit, increasing their marketing and exports of pork to countries such as Japan (helped by the new Japan-EU FTA) and China to compensate.

So learning how to be more self sufficient/green natured’s probably a good start? There’s not a lot of time but rhubarb/brambles/strawberries/wild garlic will all grow on their own easily, wild garlic/brambles can definitely be found on walks around here.. and the bloody big bush at the end of our garden.

A lot of stuff can be frozen/canned/turned to jam when people talk about a 5 week season. And wouldn’t green houses allow “winter growing”

Panic buying over winters a big enough problem locally, and I guarantee 90% of it goes into the bin, no one can use 10 loafs and 30l of milk within the less than a week date unless they’re literally on toast n tea for Christmas.

well if all the labour MP had voted for Teresa Mays deal we would not be in this position would we? And I don't see how you can negotiate if you withdraw the threat of no deal - the EU will just walk all over us .

As I posted further up the thread, in our situation, saying “we have to keep no deal on the table” is asinine because the EU know it hurts us more than them. It’s not an empty threat exactly, but the cross on the graph of cost vs benefit to the EU of stopping it is much higher than it is for us, which means if we don’t see a reason to stop it they certainly won’t.

It’s like trying to get a discount at Clarks by saying “ha, I might cut my feet off then you can’t sell me any shoes at all!” It might work if you were Clarks’ only customer, but in the real world Clarks is like “well ok, that’s a pity but I can still sell shoes to the other people in the queue”

Anyone remember offal? Back in the day, my poor (literally) mum was serving us:

Tripe
Liver and onions
Kidneys
Heart
And best of all... eel.

No wonder I'm a vegetarian now.

Wartime spirit is especially strong when you discover that 52% of the people sharing your shelter voted to be bombed.

Piglet
That did make me roar. Exactly. Well put. I’m in a pro leave area. They can fo.

Spoken like a Brexiter. It is endlessly fascinating to me how the narrative has shifted from 'There will only be upsides to Brexit'/'We'll have a glorious future/be great again' to 'Everyone will have the food they need', Ann Widdecombe's 'we survived WW2 didn't we', and tosh like this.

You don't have to be a Brexiter to want to make the best of things you can't change. Moaning about food shortages achieves nothing. It's better to think of how positives might be brought out of the situation, than to wallow in misery because the 21st Century food extravaganza might grind to a halt.

Ah that good old wartime spirit, when many women prostituted themselves in order to feed their children, hunger was a way of life, rickets was common and the black market was rife. I can wait!

Actually that was supposed to say ‘I can’t wait’. But 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's better to think of how positives might be brought out of the situation, than to wallow in misery

Please list these positives.

Moaning about food shortages achieves nothing

It does though. It helps create uncertainty and worry in people's minds in the last few months before Brexit. Because we don't have to do this.

It's not fake news what Gove said. It's undeniable. It needs discussing.

Currently on holiday in Spain enjoying all the fresh produce. Can’t believe the scenario awaiting us when we return to the UK. Does anyone out there still think that Brexit is a good idea? If so, please tell me what we will gain.

Lunafortheloveogod you need to prepare all year to live like that - people who did used to spend the whole year canning and preserving each season's surplus. You can't start in September and be ready for the end of October with anything substantial. Plus the fact that foraging wouldn't go far if everyone was doing it!

It's probably possible to make Britain food self sufficient but it would require a huge government policy driven initiative with massive subsidies to slaughter most meat and dairy animals and turn over most of the land from animal feed crops and other not directly edible crops to intensive vertical growing polytunnel set ups plus potatoes and high production grain crops.

The indoor growing set ups would require so much fuel it wouldn't work if fuel shortages were an issue.

If that were really the plan billions should have been poured in in July 2016.

You don't have to be a Brexiter to want to make the best of things you can't change.

But we haven't left yet! We can change it. Literally, all we need to do is say to the EU "you know what, this Brexit is a bigger downside than we thought. Let's not do it, or at least give us an extension to double check there is a mandate for No Deal Brexit and the associated social and economic costs before we pull the trigger". They have already said they'd allow it.

FFS, my phone double checks before it installs an upgrade, so surely the UK can double check before it restructures 40-odd years of economic and legal structure!

Rickets were not common in the UK during the 1940s - it had been discovered long before then that vitamin D could prevent them.

Does anyone remember before the referendum there were buses plastered with how much extra funding would be put into NHS if we left?And how after results were in, we were told that wouldn't happen?
I'm not convinced everyone will have enough food...

The bollocks about surviving the war really annoys me. Around 449,000 brits (including around 70,000 civilians) didn’t survive the bloody war.

Totally something to look forward to.

We can change it. Literally, all we need to do is say to the EU "you know what, this Brexit is a bigger downside than we thought. Let's not do it, or at least give us an extension to double check there is a mandate for No Deal Brexit and the associated social and economic costs before we pull the trigger"

We all know it can be changed, the problem is that the government won't change it.

Havanananana - see my earlier posts.