Scarcities

Welshwife
Obesity is a burden on our NHS. I hardly think a drop in the supply of vegetables is going to affect those persons.

PS Should be, or prevented from doing so.

Cheer up Alexa [sad ]the end of the world is not nigh
How on earth DID we survive without migrant workers?
We managed before and this country will hardly go on meltdown due to those NOT wanting to work here, not because they are being prevented from doing so. Many of our veggies and other foods come from across the channel We will still trade across the channel. If you survived 1939-45 Brexit will be a piece of cake.

Why are the farmers themselves so worried then - if that were still true and they had the ability to produce so much food why are they not just rubbing their hands with glee and looking forward to being solvent again quite easily?
Apart from that climate change is changing things and weather patterns playing havoc with harvest - for the last five years adverse weather conditions have ruined our. cherry crop - nothing can be done about a late frost killing the blossom or such heavy rain that the fruit rots on the trees. Some other fruits cropped well enough but all food grown in the open is subject to the weather in some way.

But some of the migrant pickers were just moving from one part of the U.K. to another following the harvests - like the Kent hop pickers.
It must be wonderful to have such blind faith!

For goodness sake. We ate perfectly well before we were conned into joining what was then called The Common Market. It may be a shock to learn it but food doesn't appear prepacked by European magic on Tescos' shelf - it's produced by people called 'Farmers'. Not only that, British farmers are amongst the best farmers in the world.

Not much will change. There were migrant pickers before the EU and they'll be migrant pickers when we leave. The migrant fruit pickers near me have picked year after year. There won't be a problem when we leave the EU.

I certainly don’t think Coco is worrying unnessarily - she is living in a farming community and does KNOW what is going on - it is not hearsay for her. She is only reiterating what farmers who have been interviewed for months have been saying.
If the U.K. has food rotting in fields it will be a disgrace - no doubt a land army will be set up again with conscription to get the harvest in!!
All this about crops changing and machines to harvest may well come in the future but it takes time to change things and the machines will no doubt be very expensive and out of the range of many farmers who are already struggling.
I shall not do any panic buying should we need to move back to U.K. -( like the Eu migrants in U.K. our position is not anything like 100%certain) - but I would be far from complacent about what will be available.

Plenty of people on the dole who can do the picking.

Goodness me! Why worry unnecessarily now? Why wonder eh
whether tinned asparagus is as good as fresh or where it might be available? If those kinds of things are all you have to worry about, think yourselves lucky.

Astounded at some remarks at how it isn’t going to affect foods etc. Every government report ( their own) is telling them how much worse we are going to be and for decades. I don’t want to give up my nearest neighbors and be dependent in an America Presidents (fickle) trade deal promises!! Which won’t be honoured. Any Archers listeners will be following the story of Brexit voting Adam now having strawberries about to rot in polltunells because he can’t get Eastern European pickers ha! Well living in Lincolnshire where we supply almost all the kale for the country, ( sand shamefully are huge Brexit centre) it’s like the biggest act of self harm!! IT IS GOING TO LEAD TO FOOD ROTTING IN FIELDS. I think it’s better to listen to farmers who are echoing that than the daily mail! And anyway nobody stopping you from buying British produce now I’ve pissed and very concerned about animal I think so I’m lucky that I can buy fantastically grown and husband ed meat ( Bacon and ham nitrate free) 3 miles down the road but I want to choose Italian Parma ham . do we really want our meat coming from thousands of miles away and Without any controls on animal welfare? . I currently spend about £1000 a year ( A large portion of what we eat ) getting supplies from a wonderful single family estate in Tuscany , it arrives within three days of ordering , it’s on organic , and biodynamic , wine starting from £7ish a bottle and the most amazing pasta sauces etc Carbon neutral etc and I most definitely will be very very sad to see huge tariffs put on this We replaced another order last night for a lot of ( the most amazing) olive oil ( nothing likes what you get in supermarkets ! Just because of the tarrifs and will probably do to the same With wine which will keep . It is incredibly naive think we’re not going to spend a lot more on food on terrace open to put on things like oranges , tangerines , lemons grapes I always eat local seasonal produce where possible but I get would get sick of eating apples all year . round . And of course there’s always the question of why do we have to rely on immigrants to pick our food anyway ! because they will work hard in the fields often in the most dreadful weather doing jobs so people in this country don’t want to do So the next time you read some terrible poisonous story in The Mail perhaps be grateful somebody left their home to pick your fruit and veg because they often have terrible living conditions. Thankfully we have a very 2 large allotments owned by us and extended family which supplies f& v to 6 families ( not everything we need though) There has to be some compensation for living in Lincolnshire ?

I was trying to buy British products, Silver Spoon sugar is from sugar beet and is 100% British, I was surprised that Sainsburys only had their own brand which was produced in France, there wasn’t a gap on the shelf to accommodate any other Icing Sugar.

I agree with Monica. Farmers will change their crops and machines will be developed if there is no labour. I am looking forward to eating English apples again. I shall not be stocking up.

Surely you've got better things to worry about.
You can't make a lifetimes saving on soft fruits and cabbages and if they do go up in price it'll only be by pence .
If you can afford tinned asparagus there's no need to worry.
We've coped with much more than this and survived!

I will not be stocking up on anything, I’m sure we won’t starve. When I first married, most fruits and vegetables were only available seasonally, and possibly this might happen again. However, if certain things are not as readily available, so be it.
The way things are going, it’s looking as though there won’t be much disruption to supplies anyway. It’s looking like the customs union is going to continue, and possibly even us staying in EEA, so I’m not going to get stewed up about not having enough asparagus, for example.

They grow sugar beet in U.K. - some for cattle and some for refining. The only cane sugar is Tate and Lyle which is why it is often dearer as it needs to be imported.

First of all, don't believe all you read. Secondly, i may be wrong and please correct me if so, but we don't produce sugar do we? Surely the raw product is imported and then refined and made into various products.

A very pessimistic post!

Migrant workers worked in the fields and greenhouses round here before we joined the European union, with no problems.

It will be the same when we leave!

I really do not believe farmers will be forced out of business.
We will still have migrant workers in the country, just as British citizens will still be working in Europe.
Britain is still an attractive prospect for migrants, they will just have fewer rights if they do not have work etc.
We somehow managed before the huge influx of migrants I’m sure we will cope again.

Where are the optimists in Gransnet?
Why look for trouble before trouble begins?
Too many scare stories flying around - wait and see!

It amuses me no end that people think the world will come to an end if we have to pay more for or cannot get certain foods. Born before the war I was brought up on rationing....and the nation was healthy....no obesity crisis. I can remember being totally confused as to what to do with a Banana after the war.

Growing up we never had peppers, aubergines, courgettes, blueberries, six kinds of tomatoes etc I am sure we will manage, I never eat strawberries at Christmas ugh. We may however have to pay a little more for some items but the whole world apparently wants to do business with us so perhaps we will get used to some strange new foods - we are good at that.

Do you all remember years ago we had ‘Buy British’ posters and stickers on apples etc? Perhaps it’s time to start this mindset again.

Perhaps we will eat more British food and seasonally. I am all in favour of this. Hate to see strawberries at Xmas! I have always thought we should Support our local farmers and growers. The same with meat. I hate that danish pork is so much cheaper than our British pork. I only ever buy the British stuff but appreciate that not everyone can afford to do that.

Panic mongering.