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.

Talking of the Navy, the government did do a strategic review and plan to increase the number of ships

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defence_Review_(2025)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_the_Royal_Navy

Thank you. How does that compare to our navy in WW2? How big was the population then compared to now and how much food was self produced by the UK/capita. How much did food the government state was needed /capita so how much needed to be imported. Then we can compare the navy size more usefully.

Keep you busy for a Sunday.morning...

We can only feed around 45 million at best I suspect - worked out in WW2

Spot on. If they cared about the population, certainly in terms of food supply, they would be supporting farmers rather than trying to take their land from them (re wilding projects, solar farms) and making it easier for them to do their jobs, rather than imposing more and more regulations on them.

I think what the government wants is food production to be taken over by large corporations, no doubt producing chemical slop for the peasants rather than proper wholesome food. The recent inheritance tax changes for farms are just a mechanism to destroy small family farms in my view, why would a government that cares about its population want to do that?

Massively different to the WW2 Navy, obviously.

But then, the nuclear arms race has fundamentally changed the threats to the UK. Strategically the world is very different now than 80 years ago.

Of course making things worse matters. It’s only because you’re more sympathetic to Labour that their policies are seen to be ok.

This. Fly over the UK. Little of it is inhabited.

But MAD still applies to both sides so there's no guarantee we won't have a non nuclear ground war like Ukraine.

What’s with all of the wildly scaremongering threads lately?

You are writing as if in 2023 the UK was self sufficient in food and after one day in 2024 it wasn't.

Which is as I say "naive". Or misguided. Or pushing an agenda.

what exactly would make you happy ? And is it possible ? Because when I meet unhappy people, they tend to skip over the second question.

It's possible for the UK to become more self sufficient, yes. At a cost of %age GDP per %age increase. However that money has to come from somewhere, since farming in the UK isn't massively profitable as it can be done orders of magnitude cheaper elsewhere in the world.

And with the Us playing twister with tariffs, there's quite a lot of grain being moved around the globe.

Britain is never going to return to some chocolate box pastoral idyll of haywains and ruddy faced farmers.

Well that's simply not true. And a lot of areas of "countryside" are unsuitable for farming. Are you saying that we should expand farms to more areas? Because I agree with that. Unfortunately Rachel Reeves doesn't.

I've got a new start up.

It's a totally renewable food source, unlimited really, high protein and comes in 3 different flavours - Red, Yellow and Green.

Anyone want to invest?

It's called Soylent.

Quite.

But all that becomes irrelevant if we are at war and supply chains are cut. What happens then? Unfortunately vast swathes of land that could.be used to grow food are being covered in solar panels which wreck the earth. Or farmers sell up and the land is built on. Obviously during the last 70 years it hasn't been a massive problem as war wasn't looking likely/possible...

No, it’s true.

I think you missed the comment about nuclear weapons.

It would only take one and that's you food supply fucked up for decades.

Yes I know if you fly over in your big jet that it looks uninhabited. But that's not all.suitable for growing food.for 70 million..

All the Henny Pennies here have the option available that any subject in the UK has of either raising the issue with the political parties and getting their buy-in, or forming their own devoted to addressing the issue in the traditional democratic process.

Lively and intelligent as MN can be, it's never going to be cited when the cure for cancer is announced.

So we need more land ?

Tried that once. Didn't really go too well.

Yes I know that. But as I said, MAD applies to both side which presumably is why Russia (nuclear) hasn't nuked Ukraine (non nuclear). And why we may have a ground war if Russia attacks NATO which is seems to be dipping it's toe into the water of. (If that made any grammatical sense at all)

What are you wanting to happen?

Oh I don't understand the point the PP is trying to make really😆..so I will give up on that one.

Your opening paragraph doesn’t gel with your second. Britains farmers haven’t been able to provide anywhere close to enough food to meet British needs for decades. Protecting a bit of farm land from being built on or investing in farmers or whatever pot you are actually trying to stir is utterly irrelevant. In the event of full scale war and a blockade of imports Britain would starve unless a way was found through said blockade.

Well I'm rather hoping the skies will clear so I can do some garden prepping for the autumn. Then a spot of light dinner before looking to start a box set with some 🍷. Good nights sleep to recharge me for the ordeal of Monday.

MN is where we can all chew the fat with like or not so like minded people. Or do you think it a place devoted to policy formation for the government?