Lucy seems to have some lovely tomatoes herself tbh Seriously, this arctic weather in North Africa shyte just doesn't ring true. It's clear that, from now on, European countries will always get first dibs.
Latest news from g'kids primary school. Funding effectively cut, so instead of having a separate form teacher for each year group, some year groups will be merged. 40 plus in a class, nightmare for the teacher, impossible to do lesson plans for so mixed ability, and devalued education for pupils. A teacher is retiring, so no compulsory redundancy, just not replaced.
Just means we grow our own in larger quantities in winter glass houses, let them keep their cheap tasteless s hit for themselves
No wonder other countries are overtaking us is it. The very basics of health, education and social care are being sacrificed so people can get the train to London 30 minutes quicker or have more runways to chose from for that vital stag night in Budapest. My daughter in law in considering setting up a home schooling class for our 2 year old.
The growers can't afford to heat the glass houses, that's part of the problem. https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/sourcin...er-threat-to-uk-produce-sector/666430.article "In the week that an Efra committee report claimed seasonal labour shortages represented an existential threat to UK food and farming, crippling energy price hikes may just prove the final straw, growers are warning, with these and other inflationary pressures driving them to plant fewer crops. At least 50% of the Lea Valley Growers Association’s members had already decided not to plant in their greenhouses this year due to rising heating costs, it has emerged. The LVGA grows 500 million cucumbers, peppers and aubergines each year across sites in England, and is responsible for three-quarters of the UK’s cucumber crop. But according to secretary Lee Stiles, rocketing gas prices, alongside other inflationary pressures, left many growers unable to heat their glasshouses – a move that would mean much lower yields this year."
They can heat them though, it just means we have to pay the proper price for food, which gives farmers and growers a proper living, and if we can’t get it from abroad that’s what we are stuck with, and I am happy with that.
But but ... Boris said they would eliminate all that needless "red tape" with his oven ready brexit deal.
You're making the assumption that the wholesale buyers from farms (Supermarkets) will give farmers a fair price for their produce. They don't do it currently so I'm not sure why they would suddenly start. Then of course the increased prices gets passed on to the public and the poor stop eating healthy fruit and veg because it's cost prohibitive and they weren't able to upskill themselves enough to be paid a fair wage to afford tomatoes. So the farmers are out of pocket and the public are out of pocket/or eating less healthily. The multi national corporation supermarket still makes a fortune though and so their shareholders will all be happy. This doesn't feel like any kind of utopia to me.
Well answer to no 1 is the reason they don’t give farmers a fair price for their produce is because they buy cheap crap from abroad. They can’t now so they will pay the going price, and please don’t believe you are eating healthy buying the produce from abroad it’s massed produced flavourless rubbish and if you buy the good stuff it’s the proper price the same as it would be from here.
It's not. The reason farmers don't get a fair price is because the Supermarkets are the only purchaser of the product on an industrial level and as such they wield all the power. If you refuse to sell to them at the price they want, they move along to the next farm. The farmer on the other hand is left with a load of produce that they've paid to grow and desperately need to sell. Hence they accept the tiny margin that the supermarket offers.
Sorry mate but you are wrong, I’ve been farming 55 years and it’s bought from abroad because it’s cheaper to grow there than here, that goes for any dairy, beef, or sheep products, if it was not available from abroad our farmers would be paid the proper price for their produce.
Fair enough, I'll bow to your superior knowledge. Many of your farming colleagues are sceptical that they can hold out for higher prices though.
I know that mate, it’s bad at the minute and I can’t see anything but good coming out of them not supplying us because lorry drivers can’t be bothered with the hassle. A comparison would be if our government banned all imported cars, do you think our car companies would sell cars to us at the same price as now. Ps bad comparison that we haven’t got any
Sigh. Poor harvest in Spain and Morocco. ****ing Tories stopping the sun shining in other countries. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64718826.amp
From that article, "Ksenija Simovic, a senior policy adviser at Copa-Cogeca, a group which represents farmers and farming co-operatives in the EU, said Brexit wasn't the primary reason but it hadn't helped. In her view, businesses within Europe benefit both from being closer to where products are grown, and from simpler, better-coordinated supply chains. Ultimately, she thinks, if there is a shortage of supply then the produce that is available is simply more likely to remain within the Single Market."
