Prepping for Brexit thread

Floss · 21 July 2018 at 7:53AM

tori.k wrote: »

There is always alternatives amaranth and quinoa can easily be grown in the UK as are a host of beans they grow lentils in hertfordshire.
we will see a shift in food more so because of the weather then the politics, and from an environmental impact the less food miles always the better.

I'm not sure that there is sufficient agricultural land available to grow the quantities needed though, and certsinly thrre won't be alternative sources by next year.

[Deleted User] · 21 July 2018 at 8:04AM

Wouldn't it be good though for farmers to actually be able to grow on all the available and suitable land (Crops don't just grow any old place it has to be the right soil and climatic conditions) and earn their living by doing actual 'farming' rather than have to build holiday cottages on their land and make ice cream etc.. To be able to find a market in this country and possibly to loose the strangle hold grip of the supermarkets and be able to know that ALL of the crop will be sold including the wonky bits and not ploughed back in because it's a bit bent? Better still to know that the crops they have sown, tended and grown will actually bring some income because we'll need them and not face having to plough in fields full of perfectly good veg because the supermarket just decides they aren't needed. The waste at the moment is criminal and it's NOT the fault of the farming community.

Life is about change even in the good times, if you don't have the flexibility to change with events it's a hard and challenging life. Brexit is in reality just another change and for all the unhappiness there is amongst the citizens of the UK at the moment when it happens I'm pretty sure people will adapt, grudgingly in quite a lot of cases but there will be ways found to deal with what happens and life will go on.

moneyistooshorttomention · 21 July 2018 at 8:36AM

tori.k wrote: »

There is always alternatives amaranth and quinoa can easily be grown in the UK as are a host of beans they grow lentils in hertfordshire.
we will see a shift in food more so because of the weather then the politics, and from an environmental impact the less food miles always the better.

Agreed.

I know amaranth will grow here - because I started to try and grow some vegetables from seed this year and the amaranth got as far as young plantlets before I managed to kill if off accidentally:(. So I'm sure someone that has figured out the knack of growing from seed could certainly get amaranth growing okay. I've also read that quinoa has started to be grown in this country.

I've clearly not got the knack of growing from scratch yet - am working on it:rotfl:. The one thing I managed not to kill off of my seeds was sea beet and I think I've got a plant on the way from it. Come to think of it - a couple of plantlets I'd virtually given up might just be taking off - think those couple of odd-looking plants I've got coming on are Japanese Beefsteak plants.

Thankful that I thought "Who knows what and when might come up?" and instantly started planting a noticeable variety of fruit plants when I moved here 5 years ago - so most of them have had time to get to maturity.

maryb · 21 July 2018 at 8:37AM

with no more Common Agricultural Policy constraints it will be interesting to see how British agriculture develops. But I doubt we would end up trying to be as self sufficient as possible as we had to in wartime. Trade will go on. We might go back to older patterns eg more from NewZealand but we will still import food from Europe. A few days of problems at the docks causing backlogs meaning French farmers can't get their produce to market will have the tractors out and burning tyres. French farmers have ways of making their views heard

tori.k · 21 July 2018 at 9:28AM

Floss wrote: »

I'm not sure that there is sufficient agricultural land available to grow the quantities needed though, and certsinly thrre won't be alternative sources by next year.

All comes down to curbing waste, farmers discard two-fifths of all fruit and vegetables grown in the UK the food security study done at Leeds university suggest 15 million tones of edible food is discarded annually.
Its not a resource issue, everyone could easily be fed but there is no money in doing so.

tori.k · 21 July 2018 at 9:37AM

maryb wrote: »

with no more Common Agricultural Policy constraints it will be interesting to see how British agriculture develops. But I doubt we would end up trying to be as self sufficient as possible as we had to in wartime. Trade will go on. We might go back to older patterns eg more from NewZealand but we will still import food from Europe. A few days of problems at the docks causing backlogs meaning French farmers can't get their produce to market will have the tractors out and burning tyres. French farmers have ways of making their views heard

Totally agreed diversity is so important, but we do need to become more sustainable and buying in something like Kale from France when UK farmers are disposing of more Kale than is actually ever purchased in the UK is plain ludicrous.

maryb · 21 July 2018 at 9:49AM

Exactly why it will be good to be free from the CAP.

I can't now track it down but during the French presidential elections, I think I saw an analysis showing that a lot of food producing areas voted Marine Le Pen, which suggests that EU solidarity would not be top of their list of priorities

humptydumptybits · 21 July 2018 at 9:59AM

Halting all building on good agricultural land would be a good idea. I've seen alot of fields disappear where I live and planning applications in for more and yet brownfield sites stand empty.

moneyistooshorttomention · 21 July 2018 at 11:46AM

humptydumptybits wrote: »

Halting all building on good agricultural land would be a good idea. I've seen alot of fields disappear where I live and planning applications in for more and yet brownfield sites stand empty.

From which I'm guessing you are in the South of England - and I know exactly what you mean:mad:.

About the only consolation is the housebuilding there might have to be "hauled back" because lots of people (including those of us from South of England) can't afford to live in our own area with the way they've shot up:mad::mad::mad:

Probably the fastest way that "regional differences" will vanish - as people are forced to move to "other areas" and try and have "what we're used to" there.

humptydumptybits · 21 July 2018 at 1:41PM

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

From which I'm guessing you are in the South of England - and I know exactly what you mean:mad:.

About the only consolation is the housebuilding there might have to be "hauled back" because lots of people (including those of us from South of England) can't afford to live in our own area with the way they've shot up:mad::mad::mad:

Probably the fastest way that "regional differences" will vanish - as people are forced to move to "other areas" and try and have "what we're used to" there.

I'm living 200 miles from my place of birth/where I grew up. I don't see a problem with people moving and I don't think an area belongs to people who just happened to be born there. I bought my house from a local and they were happy enough to take the money.

I think employment opportunities would even out regional differences.

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