Fruit and veg to run out if farms don't get pickers

[SudokuQueen]

www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/28/fruit-and-veg-will-run-out-unless-britain-charters-planes-to-fly-in-farm-workers-from-eastern-europe

Why do we actually need to fly people in from other countries when there are a ton of people not working now due to corona killing off their jobs?

Unemployment has gone up by tens of thousands in a week. Just a week. It will only increase.

Food pickers are keyworkers so can go out to do this. Why can't we just get the new unemployed to do this? Yeah it might not be the amount of money you were getting before, but I bet its better than benefits.

I used to pick fruit as a job as a teenager. In fact I think I was still at primary school when I started. Used to get paid something like 7.5p per punnet I picked. If you’re paid per punnet believe me your productivity zooms up. I picked 7 days a week in the school holidays and loved it. My back is far too fucked to do strawberries now unless they’re in head height beds which some places do.

What's your suggestion then @TheArchSorcererofContwaraburg? I literally don't have another one, like I say other than rations.

Nothing has an all round positive outcome. You ask people to do this, they are at risk of cv. You don't, and you're putting people at risk of hunger. Rationing, again hunger, and probably a rise in theft which is sadly already happening.

Realistically, best you can do if people were to work in the fields is give them masks and gloves, check their temperature before they even get on the buses to take them to the farms or maybe even routine testing for cv although that has proven to be a tad faulty.

But I think it's a better idea than putting the entire country at risk of starving.

Yep. They are paying £400+ a week to fruit pickers. The Government needs to get the unemployed into these jobs rather than relying on bringing in people from abroad.

I live in an area with many fruit farms and they make it impossible for locals to work there.

Firstly they have shifts starting at 4am when locals cannot get a bus there, in the not too distant past there were berry buses ferrying locals to the farms.

Then they have the workers live in shitty caravans or accommodation blocks, charging a lot of money for them meaning they make more profits.

I did look on a local farm website and they were still specifically asking for European workers!

Rosehip - it’s not the farmers , it’s the supermarkets and in turn the general population who set prices . The farmers in many, if not all instances pay the farmer what they want. It becomes a take it of leave it situation .

I propose rationing tbh . It’s the only way we will feed people if theirs goes on for months on end .

Yes, I can in fact, Purple.

Surely not 'I'm all right, Jack'? (I couldn't work out what the last comment from arch addressed to me meant but I'm assuming something negative.)

Loads of soft fruit farms round here. Th locals were turned away years ago in favour of the cheaper labour of Eastern European workers. Now the farmers are appealing for the locals to pick and are being told where to stuff it I’m afraid. I’m not condoning that attitude but I can see why they feel that way

Are you a teacher, OP? If so, will you be using your summer break to volunteer?

LOL at your post. British as too lazy and entitled to do jobs like this. They better would stay unemployed, claim benefits and drink and smoke in their back gardens whole summer. All europeans will stay in their own countries producing their own foods a d picking fruits etc for their own COUNTRIES. and with brexit and corona you are pretty s crewd. It is only a matter of weeks till you start running out of basic foods.

How much food are you producing to help feed other people Arch ?

(I couldn't work out what the last comment from arch addressed to me meant but I'm assuming something negative.confused)

Why assume the worst? It was a compliment . How sad, to always assume everything's a barb directed at oneself.

@Purpletigers Having seen some of the accommodation that farmers house EE workers on several different types of farms in the UK, I am struggling to have sympathy. Why do all threads on food have "gentleman" type farmers sobbing about their income

How much food are you producing to help feed other people Arch ?

Depends on how much we can produce, Purple, it's a small holding.

If I wasn't a key worker and didn't have kids - and I had lost my job, I would definitely do this.

I often day dream of an opportunity to live in the middle of nowhere in a community for about 3 months, working outdoors in the summer.

These ones are recruiting and have accommodation on site: www.hughlowefarms.com/jobs/seasonal-work

I'm sure there's plenty of blame to share between consumers expecting unrealistically low prices, and not buying local/seasonal produce, supermarkets squeezing farmers, farmers doing things as cheaply as possible - some may be trying to behave reasonably, others don't.

Going over that doesn't really help work out what to do in the current situation, does it?

Apologies, arch for misconstruing - though actually, I rarely assume comments at me are barbed.

I'm glad that I'm classed as a key worker because I wouldn't last long in that job. People assume that it's easy, but I know that with the best will in the world, I couldn't meet those quotas.

Based on accounts of others who've given it a go, I suspect that the majority of new starters wouldn't be able to meet these quotas. Some of the East European fruit pickers you see in the UK have come here with several seasons experience under their belt.

I'll stick to growing my own fruit and veg as much as possible. Luckily, I've done it before and have the seeds.

The normal quotas presumably wouldn't be workable with labour unused to the task.

I really don’t think people have ever thought properly about where their food comes from and the work it takes to produce it .

I would have hoped in these unprecedented times the general public would be more appreciative of the farmers and farm workers who work such long hours to feed everyone. The supermarkets are the ones raking in the profits . You only have to research the mark up on food and the percentage a farmer receives in payment to see just how screwed the whole system is .
People will pay £1k for a damn phone but they complaint if they can’t buy their weekly shop for less than their monthly sky bill . Our priorities are skewed .
When you bought a cup of coffee from Starbucks the farm worker who harvested the coffee beans got 1p while the coffee chain got over £1 . I can recall exact figures but they were wye opening . Is that fair ?

Who picked the fruit before the Eastern Europeans?
A brief summary of seasonal agricultural work in the last 100 years.

Between the wars, crops were harvested by itinerant workers who moved around the country getting work according to the seasons, 'travellers/gypsies' and seasonal workers such as East End hop-pickers. Work was hard, wages were at subsistence level and conditions abysmal. ‘Besides these starvation wages, the hop-picker has to put up with rules which reduce him practically to a slave,’ as George Orwell wrote from his first-hand experience - www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/hop-picking/ or hoppicking.wordpress.com/

During WW2, agricultural work was done by people evacuated from the cities, by the Women’s Land Army and by prisoners of war and occasionally by soldiers.

After WW2 the men returned to the UK and to the task of rebuilding the country. There was a need for manpower in factories and construction and as wages were far higher than in agriculture, the industry faced a critical shortage of workers. 400,000 German POWs were prevented from returning to Germany until 1948 (despite the war ending in 1945) and were forced to work in agriculture and construction. Some did so voluntarily (e.g. Bert Trautmann, who later played football for Man City) as they preferred to stay in the UK than return to a war-ravaged Europe. In addition, 100,000 Poles were allowed to stay in the UK as well as a similar number from other Easter European states who were fearful of returning to their home countries which were by then under Soviet occupation.

The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme – 1945; Initially allowed foreign students, then anyone, to come and do seasonal work.

In the last 15 years the seasonal workers have come from the former Eastern Europe. Before those countries joined the EU, the seasonal workers came from countries such as Portugal.

blogs.exeter.ac.uk/exeterblog/blog/2016/09/19/who-picked-british-fruit-and-veg-before-migrant-workers/

Well, what do you produce Arch ?
Would you sell it for less than it cost you to produce it ?

@HarrietTheShy no not a teacher, I would be a terrible teacher. do not have the patience they have.

Fruit and veg wont run out it will rot, low pay, I have read items from fruit farmers saying you can earn £100 per day.I dont have any kind of smart phone and have never bought a cup of coffee in starbucks.

We have had THREE YEARS discussion on the reliance of fruit and veg production on E European Labour.

The Brexit Voting Desmond that was on TV in Normal For Norfolk closed down his fruit farm last summer because he could no longer get the young E European workers to live in his horrible selection of caravans and work for him in the EU hostile environment.

It isn’t simply a C Virus issue.

Who picked the fruit before the Eastern Europeans?

The British Romany Gypsies, right up until we were ethnically cleansed in the 1960's.
Then, smaller numbers who were given right to stay on the land from the farmers.
The persecution, racism and recent changes in law, to outlaw us and make us criminals for trying to conserve our way of life/culture, means none of us will be in a hurry to do this work.

Fruit picking can turn reasonable money if you are prepared to work hard. One of our neighbours has an orchard and his most productive pickers in season we be grossing £15 an hour on an 18 hour day plus free meals and accomodation.

He also has pickers who by the time he feeds and houses them don’t pick enough to cover the cost of having them.