Whenever you have these discussions, on here and in other media, there seems to be a large minority of the population that positively hankers after more shortages, restrictions and post-war style rationing. ‘We’ve had it too good for too long; get an allotment and grow your own; eat seasonally and go foraging in the woods; at least you’ve got swedes and carrots’ and so on - it always reads like one of those WW2 propaganda posters.
I don’t know who these people are, but they’re certainly not the ones working two or three minimum wage jobs to pay their rent and heat their homes, or any of the many dual income full-time working families I know who are run ragged trying to keep up with astronomical mortgages and nursery bills while still fostering some kind of functioning relationship with their kids.
We’re very privileged here; most of our fruit and veg comes from the local market (a normal local one, not an artisan farmers’ one), we have plenty of different shops, including farm shops, nearby, DP is a skilled cook and we do eat seasonally as far as possible. We’re all about the sprout tops and kale and purple sprouting broccoli; wouldn’t dream of buying tomatoes or strawberries in winter and so on.
But our lifestyle is quite unusual, and even we don’t have the time or resources to grow our own (other than the odd foray into salad leaves and courgettes in our tiny London north-facing garden in summer) or to scavenge around 5 or 6 different supermarkets to find an approximation of what we want. Most of our friends, who are generally busier than us, do one big online shop or make one trip to the supermarket all week, and if items don’t arrive they just don’t have enough food. They have literally no time or energy to top up, or think outside of the box to adapt recipes. Many of them (including myself) don’t really have the cooking skills either. It just isn’t doable for most people, especially the younger working population.
Oh, and it is definitely Brexit causing this. Other stuff too, but largely that. We’ve travelled widely in Europe for years (I lived in Spain and Germany for a bit) and the food and veg offer there has always been better quality and more abundant than here. But now the gap is far starker, and where there are genuine shortages countries are clearly supplying themselves and their EU neighbours first, while we in the U.K. get whatever is left over. And I don’t think admonishing people for wanting tomatoes in February and entreating them to get an allotment (has anyone actually seen the current waiting lists for allotments?) is really going to solve the massive issues that this country now faces.