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.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1wgeq702dyo

In a worrying development we are in a global banana shortage due to climate change, I googled it after seeing very empty shelves in our town today and my friend in another town said the shelves are empty there too.

I live in a village, we've had corn in our local fields this year. Within two weeks of one field being harvested it went up with a planning application for 50 houses. I'm in a very rich farming area and our farming land is disappearing very quickly here. We are close to an agricultural college that speciises in agri tech and vertical farming. We need to urgently start looking at investing in these technologies. If war hits we could possibly sustain ourselves a little better by doing so. Plenty of warehouses we could remodel, create the power from solar and wind without needing to connect to the grid. It could be possible in my utopian world to sustain ourselves. We say this country isn't productive, we could easily turn ourselves into the forefront of science and food technology. It's not like there is a worldwide demand as we face cljmate change.

Less than 10% is a LOT. We are one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. Each person requires 1 acre of farmland to sustain their diet, and we have 69 million people and 60 million acres. Even if ALL our land was farmland, we wouldn’t be able to feed our population without help at this point. It really riles me when people think 10% of space being built on isn’t a lot because it really is.

Farmers don't want to keep operating farms in difficult growing conditions and without EU subsidies so they shut up shop and it's an easy profit to sell land to property developers. There's no guarantee they would want the hassle of having complex technology placed on their land. That's the big issue in that all the land is owned by people that may not want to play ball when they can sell it for a nice sum.

Are the problems with food security are down to Labour's failing? Can you explain please?

Well I am not responsible for food security in the UK as far as I know so that's a relief.

We've been through Labour's failings on food security ad nauseum on this thread and also it's been balanced by people who think different factors are relevant so check it out and come back if you have any more questions or thoughts.

Globally we are going to have to produce more food in the next 50 years than we have in the last 8000. The world population is expected to hit 10 billion by 2050 (sorry if this has been mentioned, haven't read the whole thread).

Food shortages are going to get worse and are likely to affect us all. Will be hungry here in the UK, possibly? But certainly prices will spiral.

We need to focus on food security in the UK. We need to stop turning prime farming land over to solar panel farms when solar panels can be put elsewhere (roofs, central reservations, etc). I live rurally in arable farming country and these solar panel farms spanning hundreds and some of them thousands of acres are going through planning currently. I keep objecting to them but they keep getting planning permission.

Well the formally arable fields surrounding my village have been turned over to housing estates. Labour seem to have relaxed planning rules. DH owns 10 acres and we know we we could get planning permission if we wanted whereas in the past it would have been turned down. His fields are a little pocket surrounded by housing as other land owner s have sold up and made a lot of money.

It's madness I agree, along with most of Ed M's policies. Nuclear power is the way to go and it's a shame we didn't sort it out years ago.

Like there were plans for ensuring there was sufficient PPE or medical equipment if a global pandemic hit? I know that was a different govt but imho they're all as bad as each other. You have far more faith in their planning abilities than I do! 😀

Too right

They're all the same? A position pushed by those who are privileged enough so that politics doesn't really effect them. Or those who have no understanding of how politics effects their lives.

In 2016 the Tory government ran a simulation of a flu pandemic. Exercise Cygnus. It was not published nor were it's recommendations followed. Lack of ICU capacity and PPE were highlighted.

Conversely, in 2005 under Labour there was a Pandemic Flu Strategy, this included detailed plans, from antivirals, to PPE and ventilators.

Two very different approaches.

"They're all the same" Bollocks are they

The road not taken....we will never know if Labour's flu strategy would have been better than the Conservatives. Anyway Labour were the ones pushing for longer stricter (pointless) lockdowns which has wrecked the economy as predicted, so they are hardly Pandemic Pros either.

As Labour followed the recommendations from their review but the Tories didn't. I think it's fair to suggest that Labour would have followed the recommendations from Cygnus.

Yep.

I’m not a drama queen (maybe I am), but for this (and other more wholesome) reasons, I am learning to grow and preserve my own.

I am genuinely worried for us, and more for my children and any future children they have. I think your concerns are valid, OP, even if they’re not immediate.

Sadly, shouting about the government is like screaming into the void, and a waste of energy. I’m using that energy in trying to become, at least a little bit, more self-sufficient. Sadly I live in a city and only have a garden. I haven’t been able to convince my family to uproot to a small holding in the bum arse end of nowhere with excellent growing conditions and enough room for some chickens and a goat. Maybe if things start looking worse, they’ll agree 😆

We had a Labour lockdown in Wales and it was stricter than the rest of the country and lasted longer. If ours was anything to go by it would have been much worse for the economy and the only reason they eased up was the funding for furlough ran out from Westminster so they had no choice.

Counterfactuals aren't hugely helpful. But they are fun I suppose.

I was just demonstrating that the two main parties are different for the poster who said "they're all the same" which is a foolish notion

Oh yes definitely. We've heard the local farmers making noise about how much they'd get for their land and not wanting it as the crops just aren't profitable. So sad really.

Exactly. And if the government seem to be actively against them (or at least their policies are having a negative effect) them selling up is the easier option. To everyone else's detriment potentially.

There’s no guarantee your freezer would even be working in the event of a war, there could be power cuts or you could be bombed out/displaced. It would also be unlikely to remain filled for the duration of a war. Probably you’d exhaust your supply before the country really started to feel the pinch. Remember in WW2 the list of rationed items grew as the war dragged on, and continued long after the war ended.

So I would go ahead and process the free food you have growing if I were you! I’m not sure I see the logic in allowing good free food to rot on the grass and then going on to complain about food instability and being unable to feed ourselves. I’m presuming what your husband wants to rush out and fill the freezer with is meat, probably some of which will be imported.

Very few preppers have any grounding in reality.

Why am I being called a prepper out of interest?

Anyway beef prices are about to go through the roof so it's probably a good idea to chuck out the apples and fill the freezer with beef everyone!