Food is too cheap ?

[Loveshelly]

Food has never been cheaper, meat is unbelievably cheap. Even with a conscious move towards less meat consumption it’s clear that huge consumption of cheap meat is going on.

AIBU to think that we all need to spend more on our produce, especially in the wake of brexit, we clearly cannot rely on cheap labour anymore. So we are going to have to pay more.

All I tend to see on MN is people desperate to get food bills down, then on another thread people fretting they can’t keep heating on all night.

Have we become totally skewed about what are the things we should be spending more and less on.

@Wazzzzzzzup

British cousine is weird. It sounds lovely, I mean just look at cottage pie, should be delicious. Recipe sounds perfect. But... Where is the flavour? So many Ive eaten could really use more pepper, thyme, maybe 1 small clove of garlic extra? Oooh and brown sauce (nice surprise). It's generallysomewhat bland if that's the right word. That's a shame. I like british food. It's very comforting.

My eyes have been opened when I asked about lemons recently. I always thought that with taking over so many countries so long ago, many flavours were more embeded into cooking in UK.

You've been fed by Philistines.

Even before the arrival of garlic etc shephard's and cottage pies should have been very tasty, even the war ration versions.

As for lemons, like bell peppers, they are a fairly new arrival. I certainly have memories of travelling from the SW back up to Liverpool and being stunned at the lack of both, and many other now commonplace items.

Like oranges, lemons used to be seasonal. But we do have those nice Jif squeezy lemons for pancake day

@wazzzzzzzup you need to add some Worcestershire Sauce to your mince. It gives your cottage pie a nice kick.

I loooooooove Worcestershire sauce! Especially since I learned to pronounce it correctly😁

@CuriousaboutSamphire i have heard oglf jif a lot now 😁 Found that discussion really fascinating

some people don't even brown off the meat first, chuck in some meat and onions, throw mashed potato on top and what you get is lacking in flavour.

Should be a criminal offence @MatildaIThink

It's a problem now, yes. Farmers used to be subsidised by EU grants and be able to source affordable and effective labour from the same. Personally though if foods gets anymore expensive I won't be able to afford it.

@liveforsummer

It's a problem now, yes. Farmers used to be subsidised by EU grants and be able to source affordable and effective labour from the same. Personally though if foods gets anymore expensive I won't be able to afford it.

Our government has a new programme for grants, but yes they may have to start paying higher wages to staff. Supermarkets could afford to take a bit of a hit on profits to avoid price hikes, but they won't of course.

@Upsielazy where do you think the money is going to come from to pay them more.

Our input costs are going up I'd say on average 20% at the moment. We've just had a price drop on our product.

My husband has worked for 8 weeks without a day off. Currently have two staff of sick and he's living in our caravan so he doesn't catch the Covid flying around the children's school.

I'd love to pay the staff more. But without significant price rises what will happen is farmers will quietly sell up. The land will be put into ELMS by rollover money and we'll buy all our food from elsewhere.

[quote flowerycurtain]@Upsielazy where do you think the money is going to come from to pay them more.

Our input costs are going up I'd say on average 20% at the moment. We've just had a price drop on our product.

My husband has worked for 8 weeks without a day off. Currently have two staff of sick and he's living in our caravan so he doesn't catch the Covid flying around the children's school.

I'd love to pay the staff more. But without significant price rises what will happen is farmers will quietly sell up. The land will be put into ELMS by rollover money and we'll buy all our food from elsewhere.[/quote]
The people who buy the food and supply it onwards to supermarkets, catering companies etc should pay more for the goods. They obviously won't because money is all that really matters in this country, but there's a breaking point when everything keeps getting squeezed in a bid to be the most competitive. I feel for farmers who have for years been in a hold by supermarkets demanding the cheapest prices and cheap labour enabling this to an extent. I suspect sadly rather than farmers being paid more here we will soon see a lot of low quality and cheap exports :(

I agree food is too cheap… I hope long term this will push up meat prices, force better lives/less suffering for the animals and that people will eat less meat. We live in France and food here is much more expensive. Supermarkets in Uk are cheap in comparison! For most products but meat especially xo

When in south of France we spend a fortune on fruit and veggies from the local grocer , €13 a kg for peaches! , but it’s so fresh and sweet, figs are €19 for five or six pieces , cherries, everything is fresh and delicious, most produce are locally sourced , I tell DH this is what organic, sustainably produced vegetables and fruits cost and taste like.
In the UK we sometimes get our fruits from the farmers market and grocer shops , apples always taste better, and the pears are exceptionally good , no comparison to supermarket ones,
But they are not cheap.