AIBU to think the UK should have a National Food Service again? (Like we basically had in WW2)

[Staybymw]

During WW2 and for years after, the UK did have a kind of National Food Service.
The government controlled prices, ran bakeries, managed rationing, guaranteed flour/milk supplies, and kept basic staples affordable so people didn’t starve. It wasn’t fancy, but it worked.

So with the cost of living crisis now, rising food prices, food banks everywhere, and benefits going up because families literally can’t afford groceries… why don’t we bring back a modern version?

I’m not talking about anything complicated.
I mean basic, no-frills staples produced not for profit:

• bread
• rice
• pasta
• tinned tomatoes
• flour
• oats
• basic cooking oil
• tinned veg / beans

All stuff we can grow or easily manufacture in the UK.

If the government owned the land, the factories, and the distribution, they could:

• create thousands of jobs ( more people paying tax)
• stabilise food prices
• make sure no one goes hungry
• massively reduce the need for benefits to keep rising
• put pressure on supermarkets to stop hiking prices

Other countries already do versions of this:

France controls wheat prices
Japan buys rice from farmers and sells it back at stable prices
Egypt subsidises bread for millions
India has state-run ration shops
Brazil provides government food baskets
Saudi Arabia subsidises milk, flour, staples through state industry

It’s not a wild idea lots of countries see food as a strategic, essential service.

A National Food Service would mean:

• no shareholders to pay
• no profit margin
• steady UK jobs
• cheaper food
• more secure supply chains
• less reliance on private companies
• more tax revenue from the workers it employs

It could help families massively.
Especially those who are working but still struggling, or whose benefits are swallowed by food prices.

Given everything going on, food inflation, child poverty, constant arguments about increasing benefits, would a simple, not-for-profit national food range actually save money in the long run?

69p for a bag of carrots is really cheap though. I'm struggling to work out how a farmer could grow them for much cheaper. Part of the problem is that people are so removed from how food is actually produced that they think carrots just magically appear in the ground.There are production costs, transportation costs, inspection costs, packaging costs etc. To then think that a bago of carrots is expensive at 69p is insane! The only way I can think of making them cheaper is to sell them in unwashed bunches, but I guarantee that nobody would buy them like that.

Yes I’m a bit miffed at 69p for a bag of carrots really expensive too.

I think it’d be a good idea. Set prices across all supermarkets or govt run stores for all basics.

But then you’re eliminating the competition that made them so cheap in the first place. So today a bag of carrots at 60p might be great but in 10 years time theylll have increased by cpi every year of something and be 70p whereas a competitive market could’ve held them at 60p. You’re basically killing competition which drives down prices, not up.

It's beggars' belief that people can't cook. Presumably we've all had Home Economics/Food Technology lessons at school.

I know it must be harder if your own mother/carer did not have confidence in cooking, but there are so many resources available. It's pretty easy to follow a recipe in a book or BBC Good Food or YouTube. It doesn't have to be great first time, but you learn by doing.

If you don't have pots and pans, or utensils, may these could go on the Christmas list. I'm not sure if you can easily get these at charity shops, but you certainly can from organisations such as Besom.

As for time, there are loads of recipe books for meals in under 30 minutes. Surely even a very busy person has 30 minutes? An Iceland special probably takes longer than this.

Because they are the ones that are moaning?

And again. How are you going to mitigate for the disabled or those with food intolerances and allergies? Because unless you do that, you’re effectively making their food more expensive. So their benefits would have to be increased?

I can’t cook because I’m disabled.

how are you going to mitigate that?

We already give people with disabilities higher levels of benefits to account for this.

But if there is a national food service and they don’t account for that, then it’s effectively a reduction in their benefits.

the scheme won’t work without taking this into account.

No they’re not?! The only ones moaning are the busybodies obsessed with what other people may or may not be eating. Which is none of their business

although I don’t agree with the idea of government food I think this is a moot point- no one would be forced into buying government food I presume, it would just be available amongst others.

people with allergies to flour carrots rice apples etc would just do whatever they do now to avoid them

It wouldn't work in any world. People who can afford it will buy higher grade food and more varied food. This would then leave a basic level for people on benefits. Imagine the outrange and comparisons to work houses this type of system would lead to.

My Dad was arround during post war rationing and austerity. He reports being HUNGRY. The fight over one piece of sliced bread at dinner. The little boy in his class who always asked to eat his mates apple core because that was as close to an apple as he was likely to get. They were also cold. Dinner was a slice of bread with dripping and a hot cup of tea. People were not plump and well fed on Government rations!

I'm not convinced that the Chinese have really done any such thing as their poverty level is set extremely low. Some of their methods are not ones that would be acceptable here, such as forced relocation and employment. The so called 'success' is not as a result of agricultural policies, but more about raising literacy levels, modernisation of infrastructure and job creation. They have spent enormous sums of money to raise the incomes of some of the most impoverished sections of society, and I am not saying this is a bad thing, but it is nothing to do with agricultural policy.

Occupational therapy?

That's if you want to cook. If you can afford not to, then fine.

Wallets open, mouths shut.

I’ve got all the aids that OT can provide.

I can’t safely cook. As deemed by them at assessment.

For a start, im not able to stand safely and I can’t safely handle knives.

I want to cook. I’m not physically able to.

when did you do your OT training?

Start another thread instead of derailing this one.

This. People don’t realise how much they are already making from companies paying to have their products placed in the best position on the shelves. They are not going to lose that revenue to let the government put their stuff there instead.

You havnt really explained how it’s going to be cheaper? Or where these jobs you are creating are coming from?

Food is already relatively cheap. Basics such as bread and essentials are rock bottom.

Food is not the problem. The cost of gas, electricity and council tax is the issue

You only just need the past tense there, in relation to Ireland!
Priti ‘Vacant’ Patel, during the knotty wrangles over the terms of Brexit re Northern Ireland, actually suggested in public starving out ‘the Irish’ in order to make us toe her party line (the mad witch! Clearly thought we belong to GB).
Every jaw in Ireland was on the floor at that one. 🙄

The home ex course I had at school in the 1990s were a complete and utter waste of time.

There's nothing about budgeting and using left overs. There was nothing on core skills. It was just make a random meal you'd never cook again ever for a stupid cost. And one you wouldn't eat in the first bloody place.

No thank you - sounds horrendous