To say that every one of us needs to watch last night’s Dispatches on Ch4.

[NellyJames]

Just finished watching this. I knew it was bad but not this grim. Eye opening even for me. I knew about the meat but not the fruit and veg. And apparently the trade deal will only benefit the UK economy by less than 1%!
mobile.twitter.com/C4Dispatches/status/1315651199631319045?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Brexiteers are only reaping what they sowed. I'm almost glad tbh.

bUt BlUe PaSsPoRtS tHoUgH

Where are Sun Maid Californian Raisins grown? Would that be California?

[quote Thelnebriati]Well we knew what they voted for, but we were ridiculed and shouted down.
I was repeatedly told that the UK has high standards because thats what we in the UK do, and we didn't need the EU to do that for us.

nytimespost.com/ministers-blasted-for-using-arcane-parliamentary-rules-to-block-mps-from-chlorinated-chicken-vote/[/quote]
Exactly. They always use that excuse don’t they? We don’t need to write standards into law because it’s just what we do anyway. We don’t need the EU to legislate for us, we can set our own high standards. Except we won’t.

I’m in my 50s so old enough to remember when you wouldn’t want to go in the water at most U.K. beaches because of all the raw sewage that got pumped into it. Funnily enough we absolutely did need EU rules to get us to clean up our act.

I didn’t know the programme was on. I think I’m aware of most of the issues but will probably watch it anyway. Maybe that’s unnecessary torture. I still haven’t got over the discovery that there’s a permissible amount of all sorts of contaminates including rat hair and droppings in US food.

Still waiting for someone offer a single quantifiable benefit of Brexit...

YANBU, this programme was an eye opener for me and has really upset me.

I voted Brexit for many reasons, one of them being that I wanted our government to use some of the money saved to support UK farmers and produce more of our own food. UK farmers cannot compete on a level playing field in Europe, as UK farmers have higher animal welfare standards than other EU countries so they have higher costs. I also hoped that they would stop the export of live calves to mainland Europe (which used to travel via Dover but now have a much longer, more arduous journey via Ireland), because the calves fattened for veal over on mainland Europe are raised in terrible conditions that are outlawed in the UK. Now I find that we might be trading with a country that has even worse welfare and hygiene practices than mainland Europe, with pressure to stop labelling the country of origin on packaging - I really hope this doesn't happen.

People who voted Brexit had no way of knowing that 4 years later there would still be no workable trade deal with the EU. Brexit is unprecedented and is going to have unforseen consequences, but I still believe that in the long term the UK will be better off cutting free from the EU. Only time will tell.

@Clavinova

Where are Sun Maid Californian Raisins grown? Would that be California?

That's weak, even for you. They say exactly what they are on the tin, so at the moment I can make an informed choice. Pretty soon I won't be allowed to make an informed choice about any of the food I can realistically afford

’The EU uses chlorine to wash salad and fruit so what exactly is the problem? Your happily munching on all of that or have you stopped buying?’

www.soilassociation.org/our-campaigns/top-10-risks-from-a-uk-us-trade-deal/what-is-chlorinated-chicken/

(Very dilute) Chlorine is used to wash fruit and salad in the EU. We don’t use use it to wash chicken because we don’t need to. It’s used on US chicken because of the way they farm - huge flocks kept in dirty conditions. Their chickens are filled with antibiotics while alive and chlorine washed after death to try and manage the high levels of bacteria poor farming creates. The chlorine washing makes salmonella and other bacteria impossible to detect in a lab but doesn‘t actually kill it. It’s not the chlorine itself that’s the problem it’s why they need to use it and the risk it poses - masking the presence of salmonella and other bacteria that can cause severe illness in humans.

@cyclingmad

The EU uses chlorine to wash salad and fruit so what exactly is the problem? Your happily munching on all of that or have you stopped buying?

It isn’t really about the chlorine though is it? It’s about why they have to use the chlorine.They wash the chicken in chlorine because of the filthy conditions in which the chicken is raised and the meat processed. It’s used to wash off the excrement and other pathogens.

Try goggling how many more cases of food poisoning there are per capita in the US compared to the EU.

@Defenbaker, the appalling animal welfare and excessive use of pesticides practice in the US was cited as a worrying consequence of a UK/US trade before the Brexit vote. But you may remember it was labelled part of Project Fear and rubbished by those running the Leave campaign who unfortunately are the same shower of truth deniers now running the country.

People who voted Brexit had no way of knowing that 4 years later there would still be no workable trade deal with the EU.

They did know. Or - at the very least - they were prepared to take a massive risk, a jump into the total unknown, dragging the rest of the country down with them. So, you've got exactly what you voted for. Anyway, go to any pro-Brexit page on social media and you will see literally thousands of posts saying that no deal is exactly what they voted for.

Even Johnson said the other day that no deal would be a 'good outcome'.

baroqueandblue
Pretty soon I won't be allowed to make an informed choice about any of the food I can realistically afford.

Are you suggesting then, that Sun Maid raisins are going to remove "grown in California" from packets of raisins sold in the UK? That would be nonsense.

@Clavinova

I think the supermarkets will push back against this as well. It is in their interest to promote UK produce from Waitrose to Aldi

Waitrose:

"But whatever happens, let me give you our commitment. We promise we will never sell any Waitrose product that does not meet our own high standards. This promise is regardless of the outcome of any trade deal. It is our promise to you. It is our promise to our farmers. It is our promise to the nation."

You can't promise what you can't deliver.

And that wording could be taken to mean that Waitrose would just not sell certain products, rather than sell shit ones, which isn't a reassurance really.

People who voted Brexit had no way of knowing that 4 years later there would still be no workable trade deal with the EU

Oh spare me the violins. It was flagged up as a risk by the Remain campaign time and time again.

You had every way of knowing but chose to ignore it.

People were so angry with EU regulations simply because they were EU regulations that they didn’t bother to actually look at what the regulations were about - food safety, compensation for flight cancellations, cutting unfair roaming tariffs charged by mobile phone companies, pet passports, water quality standards ...

@Clavinova

baroqueandblue Pretty soon I won't be allowed to make an informed choice about any of the food I can realistically afford.

Are you suggesting then, that Sun Maid raisins are going to remove "grown in California" from packets of raisins sold in the UK? That would be nonsense.

This is all a big joke to you, I can see that. Presumably you feel no shame at giving zero fucks about others, and it's clear you voted Brexit because you have that pitiable island mentality. There's nothing anyone can do about your crass antisocial bullshit, except ignore you. Which is what I shall do from now on. Good luck with the whole project of being British and having more sovereignty, but let me tell you, you're kidding yourself out of that shot you had at feeling anything approaching humanity.

@Doubletrouble99

No way are we cutting our standards to their level. There would be a total out cry, also the EU and loads of others who have high standards like us wouldn't want to trade with us. The big thing for me is, I'm certainly never going to the US again and eating their food! P.S. I'm a conservative voting Brexiteer.

Well, thanks for that. Do you understand now what you've done?

If you can afford to buy organic dairy produce, meat and veg then you may be able to avoid US imports. The biggest impact will be on those who are on a budget, which includes all the companies providing nursery meals, school dinners, meals for care homes and NHS food - the groups who also happen to be those most at risk from food poisoning.

To those posters claiming they couldn’t have known this would happen four years after voting Brexit, all of the information was available Pre referendum and you chose to turn a blind eye to it. You’re reaping what you sowed and those of us that bothered to educate ourselves properly about the repercussions of Brexit are having to deal with the shitty reality of it.

baroqueandblue
This is all a big joke to you

What a cheek after you posted;
"I feel like getting a t-shirt made with the legend ONLY PUSSIES AND PSYCHOS VOTED BREXIT"

Thankfully, I took it lightheartedly.

@InTheFamilyTree

But what can we do??

Do what we have started doing - buying from a local butcher. A little more expensive ( but genuinely not much). Almost all butchers in our area have continued deliveries since they started them in lockdown - in lockdown I once bought from a butcher about 150 miles away until I found a local one that delivered. They delivered in set areas on set days. I won't go back to buying frozen meat or anything that isn't labelled.

Well we get what we vote for.
Brexit could have been overturned if leave voters had changed their minds. They didn't, they voted repeatedly (by voting Tory) and determinedly for Brexit (including most farmers) even the threat to the peace in NI and after watching the killing of Lyra Mckee, they still wanted Brexit. I saw some YouGov research about Brexit in about 2017. It asked leave voters what they would be prepared to sacrifice for Brexit. Most were willing to see adult children loss their livelihoods, the troubles to return to NI and the break up of the UK. I didn't believe it at the time, I do now. Lowering of food standards will be a small price and we're deluded if we think otherwise.

A question YouGov didn't ask was why leave voters think poverty, violence and the destruction of our country is preferable to EU membership?

These poor poor animals,they are sentient creatures not carrots. But treated as such. Why are we filled with horror at chicken awash with antibiotics and chlorine but not at a chicken collapsing under its own weight lying in faeces surrounded by 10,000 other birds? The way we treat animals in the biggest injustice on today.

*of today

Sorry if this is naive, but wouldn't politicians need to vote about removing country of origin from food? So those proposing the law would have to justify it in parliament?

It's OK, leave voters knew what they were voting for. They expected this and they'll have comprehensive plans to ensure we don't suffer from it, because they are very well informed and responsible. There is nothing to worry about. All will be well. Project Fear was only ever lefty remainer propaganda, now is the time for Brexiters to shine. It might seem as if we are very close to a No Deal Brexit and facing economic and social upheaval of a kind rarely seen outside wartime but the brave, bold Brexiters know better and will soon, very, very soon, spring into action. Because they certainly have not wasted the last 4 years spouting "you lost get over it" and "you saying this is stupid is why we did it" and kicking cans down the road. They have used the time very wisely, as you would expect, and are about to make sure the Brexit they crowed over is a great success.

I do hope each and every one of them reaps the benefits first.