Oh no!! Brexit not going quite as well as hoped

[farfromtheland]

Nevertheless if we can manage to grow more of our own food there will be long term benefits.
I realise that's a big if.

 

[mudsticks]

Nevertheless if we can manage to grow more of our own food there will be long term benefits.
I realise that's a big if.

Too right it is a massive IF

We could already have grown a lot more of our own food pre brexit.

The myth that is the EU somehow stopped us doing that, or got in the way of fresh food producers was just that a total myth.

As I've pointed out before it's the multiple buyers that are the problem.

The grocery code adjudicator is hopeless in its supposed role of seeing fair dealing btwn producer and retailer.
Consumers claim to care about provenance, but they'll usually go for the cheapest on offer.

Some can't afford to do otherwise I know

There were lots of EU projects supporting growers, and market protections that producers in this country no longer benefit from since brexit.

It all just got far worse.
Unsurprisingly this government has gone back on its promises to support and protect UK food and farming..

Small and medium sized farms are now more vulnerable to many outside forces that weren't there before..

In addition to losing skilled seasonal labour, and the chance to easily trade their surpluses, and their added value specialities with nearby countries

Now we are outside of the EU and he CAP livelihoods are far more precarious.

Many growers and farmers face great uncertainty in terms of future investment.

We can't just conjure up a skilled labour force out of nowhere .

Myself and many others have been trying to get many of these problems recognised by the powers that be .

In addition to actually farming, doing on farm trainings for the next generation , and a load of other stuff too.


Funnily enough Whitehall types, even those in defra just don't seem to get it , how badly thought through (or not thought about at at all) the whole brexit, food and farming situation really was..

Trials for schemes for support are still going on..

Trials still going on.. Six years on from brexit.
It's a complete shambles.

 

[the snail]

Nevertheless if we can manage to grow more of our own food there will be long term benefits.
I realise that's a big if.

I don't think growing it is the problem, picking and processing it is another matter though. It doesn't matter we can just eat cheap imports anyway thanks to the fantastic trade deals Liz Truss is 'negotiating'.

 

[mudsticks]

I don't think growing it is the problem, picking and processing it is another matter though. It doesn't matter we can just eat cheap imports anyway thanks to the fantastic trade deals Liz Truss is 'negotiating'.

Growing it is a problem, though.

Seasonal labour doesn't just pick and process, there's ground prep, planting, and crop maintenance that also needs doing.

All these things have large labour need spikes at specific times of year.

If we want farm labour done by settled workers then farms will need to operate in a way wholly different to the way they have generally been encouraged to do so over the last seventy years or so.

Transitioning to something with fewer peaks and troughs in labour needs, training a homegrown labour force, and creating a supply network , and pricing that supports those properly paid workers - and keeps them employed year round - however desirable all that might be - is not going to happen overnight..

 

[farfromtheland]

Transitioning to something with fewer peaks and troughs in labour needs, training a homegrown labour force, and creating a supply network , and pricing that supports those properly paid workers - and keeps them employed year round - however desirable all that might be - is not going to happen overnight..

I would be more than willing to do seasonal farm work - what would make it possible for me is having somewhere decent to stay on site. Using migrant labour in crappy hostels or camping out was exploitative anyway. As with so many things, a lot of it comes down to decent affordable housing - then we could afford to work more seasonally. A more mixed farming model should be part of a green strategy. It's as least as important as green energy for 'consumers'.

 

[mudsticks]

I would be more than willing to do seasonal farm work - what would make it possible for me is having somewhere decent to stay on site. Using migrant labour in crappy hostels or camping out was exploitative anyway. As with so many things, a lot of it comes down to decent affordable housing - then we could afford to work more seasonally. A more mixed farming model should be part of a green strategy. It's as least as important as green energy for 'consumers'.

100% agree about a more mixed farming strategy.
An agroecological one even..

That's what I've been doing, and advocating for, for all my farming decades

As for decent and affordable accommodation in the countryside to house rural workers, seasonal or otherwise.

And an overhaul of the planning system to reflect those needs.


Yes please bring it on .

Even as the landowning farmer, I'm still only trailer trash myself.

If you're not born , or married into it, it's a long hard road to get even to this stage.

But that's also down to land ownership patterns, and capitalistic drivers currently beyond our control.

 

[farfromtheland]

100% agree about a more mixed farming strategy.
An agroecological one even..

That's what I've been doing, and advocating for, for all my farming decades

As for decent and affordable accommodation in the countryside to house rural workers, seasonal or otherwise.

And an overhaul of the planning system to reflect those needs.


Yes please bring it on .

Even as the landowning farmer, I'm still only trailer trash myself.

If you're not born , or married into it, it's a long hard road to get even to this stage.

But that's also down to land ownership patterns, and capitalistic drivers currently beyond our control.

We can learn a lot from the traveller/roma/gypsy culture here I think. And we owe some solidarity to them!

 

[mudsticks]

We can learn a lot from the traveller/roma/gypsy culture here I think. And we owe some solidarity to them!

We can, and we do.

Land rights, access, and justice work includes those people too.

Their human rights are less protected after brexit.

Just look at the recent police and crime bill our gov are trying to shove through.

Very prejudical against the traveling community.

 

[PaulB]

To be honest, I don't live in Dover, so it doesn't bother me as it doesn't affect me

That is the attitude most people take. I was once doing some educational stuff in a school and was trying to teach a pupil the basics of mathematics. The question I asked was, to put things in what I thought were understandable terms, 'If Custard Cremes were ten pence each, how much would ten Custard Cremes cost?" Her answer? "I don't like Custard Cremes" so the question became irrelevant.

 

[farfromtheland]

That is the attitude most people take. I was once doing some educational stuff in a school and was trying to teach a pupil the basics of mathematics. The question I asked was, to put things in what I thought were understandable terms, 'If Custard Cremes were ten pence each, how much would ten Custard Cremes cost?" Her answer? "I don't like Custard Cremes" so the question became irrelevant.

Teaching culture has been tending to reduce mathematics to less than its nature as a vital art for decades. I hope you took the opportunity to rephrase the question in the interests of existential analysis?

 

[Fab Foodie]

As Posted elsewhere....

More winning for Brexit:
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-call-for-summit-on-worsening-pig-cull-crisis

 

[Mugshot]

Remoaners, Project Fear, teething problems, technological solutions...


View: https://youtu.be/bEO0-BlMvpE

 

[Fab Foodie]

Remoaners, Project Fear, teething problems, technological solutions...


View: https://youtu.be/bEO0-BlMvpE

They all just need to stop moaning and make the best of it...

 

[stowie]

They all just need to stop moaning and make the best of it...

It was good point that the video made at the beginning. The media have just latched onto these queues but are asking the government and official spokespeople of the port etc.

Asking the actual Lorry drivers sitting in the queues might give some illuminating answers. After all they would know why they are sitting there.

 

[Fab Foodie]

It was good point that the video made at the beginning. The media have just latched onto these queues but are asking the government and official spokespeople of the port etc.

Asking the actual Lorry drivers sitting in the queues might give some illuminating answers. After all they would know why they are sitting there.

It would also be worth asking them if they were part of the 52 or the 48...