War, farming and food supply

[Lifeinthepit]

With the recent incursions by Russia into NATO territory, it got me thinking about the increased danger of war. Bearing in mind we have nearly 70 million people squashed onto this island that's a lot of mouths to feed if the food supply lines are broken (which presumably would be a priority target by any enemy).

With that clear danger in mind, I wonder how the government is encouraging and supporting our farmers and what measures they are taking to ensure that farmers continue to farm the land to produce our food. And also how they are making sure there is enough proper farmland available (and not built on or sold to Blackrock to be covered in solar panels) to potentially support 70 million hungry people.

AIBU to think that the Government are doing the opposite of making sure our food supply will be secure in the time of any war.

My husband who is not one to catastrophise also suggested not filling the freezer with apples from our trees this year as that would mean our freezer was full of "low value food" which would not be so useful if there was a war on..

It's a worry.

Do you honestly think the government give a damn about the population? Feeding the proles would be the last thing on their minds if there was a catastrophe. We're surplus to requirements.

Squashed? Less than 10% of the UK is built on. You can drama queen as much as you like but when your opening para claims we are 'squashed' into an island, it's hard to take you seriously.

We are squashed into the available housing areas. People aren't able to live on farmland or up trees.

I think that even without a war we are at risk of losing our valuable food supplies.

Land is being sold off for housing, we have an increased population, climate issues are affecting crops and disease risk in animals, and the government seems disinterested in supporting our farmers.

Add a war to the mix and it looks like a recipe for disaster.

I don't fancy the results of 70 million of us starving. And most people won't passively just lie down.

Rachel Reeves just seems incredibly short sighted in shafting farming for minute financial gain, I just don't understand the thinking. Particularly at this time in history with a belligerent Russia. It's mad!

Agree. Our population density is high.

The UK has not been able to feed itself for generations. As in the food produced here is not enough for all the people

We had to import food in both world wars, the Germans tried to starve the UK by attacking shipping with submarines in both

It's a known risk

People got through 2 world wars without starving. We are now much more sophisticated in how we grow. We have global supply chains for a start. If we reach a point where the UK population is starving there will be far more to worry about.

It's Sunday, chill, go for a lovely walk in the 90+% of this beautiful building free country, enjoy it and be grateful for it.

https://www.cpre.org.uk/news/farms-vanishing-around-towns-and-cities-our-new-report-reveals/

It's okay because Nestlé will airdrop us some upf slop to consume whilst israel sell arms to whomever is bombing us.

The UK made a strategic decision not to be self sufficient in food in 1832.

You are 2 centuries too late ...

Squashed is just colourful language. Don't get sidetracked by semantics and think about the actual issue.

What percentage of land is fertile farmland? How much food can it produce? Will it feed 70million people if there is a war next week and supply lines are cut off? If not, is the government strategy positive or negative to farmers.

Yanbu

Government policy has never been as negative towards farmers as it is now. We have become spoiled by being able to import the food we need from the whole world. For example if there was a drought here and the crops failed.

Food and water security are going to be big issues in the coming years.

Supply chains can be broken. Which is what happened in the Wars. But we had a far lower population and far more food production here already.

We've not been able to feed ourselves without food imports for over a hundred years.

It's not a new thing, you're just using this to attack a government you don't like.

Were you worried about this when Johnson acknowledged that Brexit would damage farming through labour shortages?

Is your still liking Labour informing your posts?

Yes I was.

We are closer to a war in Europe than we have been since 1945. A European country is currently fighting Russia. Polish borders are being crossed bybRussian drones.

We've therefore chosen this time decided to shaft farmers and encourage them to sell up. So our policy is therefore to hope that some other country from another continent (because presumably if we are fighting the rest of NATO will be fighting and looking after their own food requirements).sends us food for 70 million and those supply lines aren't broken. We aren't even trying to support our own food production. It's as if the UK has given up being a proper country.

Trying to drag decisions of the past year into a discussion won't really help anyone.

It was known when the corn laws were repealed that Britain would lose the ability (which at that point it had already lost) to feed itself. There was no way our farmers could compete with (for example) Canadian farms.

The idea was that the free trade that resulted would mean that the UK would earn enough revenue to be able to afford cheaper imported food - with the guarantor being the Royal Navy.

A plan that seemed to work - even at the height of WW2, there was rationing, but no starving.

If you want to revert to 100% self sufficiency then you'd really be talking about downgrading our industrial capacity to provide agricultural labourers, as well a revolutionary planning reforms to find land suitable for crops. Neither of which have appeared as a mainstream policy suggestion from anyone serious.

The concept of autarky only works in primary schools, before the pupils first lunch break when they learn about trade. From thenonin it's fairy tale economics for the terminally dim.

The fact an entire nation was conned into it within living memory is a matter for another thread.

Sorry, I don't understand, can you clarify?

You've missed the point.

We are close to war potentially. We should therefore obviously not do anything that negatively impacts working towards some possibility of self sufficiency in food and energy. But the government is doing both those things.

It's not party political. It's self preservation!

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You say the op posts as she does because she ‘doesn’t like the current gov’. Do you post as you do because you still like the Labour gov?