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See Teeside Freeport (all kinds of Tory-based skulduggery reported in any number of recent Private Eye issues) and the dieback of crustaceans.
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The restaurant critic, writer, and jazz pianist Jay Rayner has had some things to say about all this stuff, and he’s entertaining enough to be worth reading/listening to on what might otherwise be some exceptoinally dry subjects.
For instance: You can blame the weather and Brexit. But there’s more to the UK’s food supply crisis | Jay Rayner | The Guardian
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That was a really good article thanks.
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Brexit is one of a number of forces which contribute to the long term decline of the UK.
Inequality, lack of investment in infrastructure, education, and R&D, partly caused by a financial culture based on extraction rather than production (rentierism, for example.)
A long-term concept of substituting profit-extracting companies for numerous social and public services, ranging from water to transport to probation.
The country already had all those problems, and decided to impose the hardest possible Brexit on top.
Then came Covid and then the war. But if you subtract those effects, the UK is doing worse than any comparable country, and if you subtract Brexit, the UK is still doing worse.
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Not the hardest possible Brexit, which would be “no deal”. We still have zero tariff, zero quota trade in goods with the EU.
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Tbf the conservative government before last was working really had to fuck that up. And its faction in the current regime still is.
I think Truss voted against the current deal the other day but while in power she exemplified a sharp turn to pragmatism dealing with the EU rather than performing fundamentalism for the extreme right wing media.
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There was also about 20% less people in the UK in the 1970s. I’m guessing that population growth has outpaced efficiency in food per acre, so food self-sufficiency would require more arable land than we used in the 1970s.
Britain just aint a brilliant place to grow crops, and we maybe should have frictionless trade with our neighbours.
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I don’t think that’s it at all. It’s what you use the land for: grazing and grouse hunting being notably food inefficient.
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Canada has been struggling with this as well. I think overall food inflation is something like 18%. Meanwhile actual inflation never got much above 8%. Seems fishy, right?
In our case, it seems to be due to oligarchical shenanigans by the grocery companies. All the supermarket chains (of many dozen names) in Canada are all owned by just three companies- Loblaw’s, Empire, and Metro. If they conspire to keep prices high, there’s not much we can do about it.
Curiously, grocery store profits are at record highs despite all the economic turmoil. This so suspicious that there’s a government inquiry going on. These CEOs were hauled in and questioned about it. They blame Russian fertilizer prices, but the timing on that doesn’t add up with how food is produced and the agricultural supply chain of chemical storage. It’s unclear if any action will be taken, but it appears to be profiteering by these companies.
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The same practices CEOs have used for excessive profit in other industries are being repeated in the ones that provide our food. Without regulations they’ll have the power to prevent all except the wealthy from having food, shelter, water, and healthcare* (*in the US). With their efforts to keep wages low, I shudder to think what kind of payment they’ll demand instead:
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Appreciate the viewpoint, but this part is simply incorrect.
I have an allotment in the very middle of England. I grow everything from, I shit you not, honeydew melons to parsnips to asparagus.
There is nothing wrong with the soil or climate*, but there is everything wrong with our government.
*ETA: I should have used the phrase growing conditions or something - I know there’s things wrong with the climate, to put it mildly.
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Golfers taste bad so there’s a few acres we could reclaim.
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After a cull of course.
Though being fair at least links courses end up leaving saltwater wetland preserved though perfectly manicured grass is an affront to the planet:
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See what Biden has done? It’s all his fault!
_
-Some Republican, probably.
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We have had Tories try to blame Labour (last time in government in 2010) for this. No one outside the Left thought to tell them that if they hadn’t fixed the economy in 12 years then they are to blame too, and they are more at fault for allowing it to happen when people were repeatedly warning them that they were making things worse.
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Who is throwing food away, I have never just throne food away, I eat it all, In what world do you live in that you think, people are throwing £2 tins of tom’s away?
You may as well be the sun with that quality of writing, its the poors fault if only they would stop throwing food away and start eating it!
That occurs way further up the (food) chain. Supermarkets demand certain restrictive standards from farmers and producers. “Ugly” fruit and veg gets dumped by the ton daily.
Consumers do throw food away too, out-of-date or passed best-by date or that half-used tin of toms at the back of the fridge that has grown a beard. There is a degree that consumers need to be included in the blame for wastage but the majority is focussed on suppliers of food to consumers.
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Who said anything about tinned food? In what world do you live in that a tin of tomatoes is £2?
Sounds like Torygraph writing to me!
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