Supply chains, maritime trade, nearshoring and onshoring manufacturing from China and the far East, diversification (HT Mr Drew and C@W) and such things are part of the national dialogue for the first time in a generation. Possibly since Suez. And there are any number of Who Knew? realities being revealed. I'm learning, even from Twitter. @Uncle_Albert_ posted a thread pertinent to the PPE debate asking us to remember that latex and nitrile both come mostly from Malaysian rubber (Albert claims) and that as trees take several years to grow, the current global demand for gloves may easily outstrip all possible production.
Of course it may be that if we don't buy tyres because no-one is going anywhere, there will be more rubber for gloves, but it won't be anytime soon. And even if we push to the head of the 'Top Glove' (the world's largest single manufacturer of latex gloves, he says) queue and buy a batch FOB port, you may still have great trouble getting it because of the shortage of ships and containers, many also locked down in port. Ha, OK, so you'll fly them in - except much of the previous commercial freight capacity was in the bellies of passenger aircraft, mostly also now grounded.
And then there's food.
Back in the days, I kept half a dozen hens running in a little six-tree orchard at the back of my little cottage in Needham Market. I supplemented their foraging with frost-damaged spuds bought by the sack and similar, and with Pauls and Whites layers' mash (cue Edward Spalton). The only problem was, it not only stank of fish but made the eggs taste of fish. Some time later, I think the feed manufacturers reduced fishmeal in their mixes and increased grain, corn and suchlike. Back then we were such destructive bastards that we would hoover up fish from the sea just to crush the entire catch for animal feed. Now every fish counts - and we will need every square nautical mile of our exclusive economic zone from the end of the year.
Not only do we only produce half the food we eat, but much of it is the wrong food, according to Tim Lang. The reviews of his 'Feeding Britain' in both the Telegraph and in the Guardian are instructive. Firstly, we're eating far too much Ultra Processed Food, he says - fruit loops, biscuits and chicken nuggets - and it's killing our guts (cue Stephen J) and making us obese, diabetic and natural Wuhan virus victims. Half the UK diet is UPF. It may seem cheap at the supermarket, but the true cost must include the increased health care costs of eating harmful crap that makes us fat. And then we're growing the rest the wrong way.
Instead of growing maize and cereals to feed livestock for meat, we should use that acreage to grow fruit and veg instead, and put animals out to grass. We could up our self-sufficiency in food from 50% to 80% if we do it right. And farmers and fishermen must get much more of the price we pay for our food - "Currently primary producers do most of the work but are only left with 8 per cent of the Gross Value Added from food"
And to be frank, gaining a diet rich in fish, seafood, grass-fed beef, seasonal greenstuffs and natural butter and cheese and losing one packed with fruit loops, reconstituted chicken, carcass slurry burgers, chemicals, palm oil, fillers and preservatives is, in my opinion, no bad thing.
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If the nation has an improved diet as a result of CV, it will be a positive. But don't forget - very many adults, probably the majority, don't know how to cook a proper diet.
Four years ago, we sowed 89 tomato plants, partly because we like toms, but also we could give them to friends and family.
It became a huge joke, and we froze mountains of them for the winter and following spring. Lots of people laughed at us, as the allotment was plastered with the things, and so was our home.
We grow toms in several different areas of our garden, in a greenhouse, on all three -South/South East/South West sides of the building as well, because if yet another virus strikes, the dreaded 'Late Blight', then it's 'Goodnight Vienna', as they'll all die within 48 hours. My theory - which works, is to avoid the air-borne virus by sticking the various plants in different positions, so we may lose those on the West wall, but still have the GH ones.
We live in a house where previously, a master-gardener lived. He tended a huge walled garden close by, and he would have understood that you need to work hard at growing vegetables, you need skill, and experience.
I'm still learning, but there again, I'm only seventy-two, so there's plenty of time!
The problem is on the demand side . A lot of people like shite food and through ignorance and laziness will never be bothered growing their own or cooking proper meals.
As a result of decades of intrusive and bossy state propaganda nagging people to do that, people are quite admirably refusing to do so.
Enforced Autarky is a sure route to poverty and misery.
And to be frank, gaining a diet rich in fish, seafood, grass-fed beef, seasonal greenstuffs and natural butter and cheese and losing one packed with fruit loops, reconstituted chicken, carcass slurry burgers, chemicals, palm oil, fillers and preservatives is, in my opinion, no bad thing.
That is the received food wisdom of the moment, and I'm inclined to agree. Yet we really don't really know much about food and it's long term impact on health. While it may be clear(ish) that too much sugar and simple carbohydrates are a bad thing the debates rage about fats and salt. We perhaps eat too much protein. I suspect (but cannot demonstrate) that some of the additives (E numbers!) are harmful in the long term and in bulk.
And then you add into the debate individuals responses to foods. We are aware of gluten and other food intolerances but it is not possible (yet) to pop down to the pharmacy for a blood test that will give you advance warning, or identify if you are one of the 30% or so people that cannot tolerate high levels of salt.
Which leaves us with the unpalatable (see what I did there?) idea that our parents' diets may have been better than our modern day convenience diets... but they too had their problems.
First things first, that Uncle Albert thread is worth a read including all the comments/replies futher down. I've just sent it to my doctor (eldest) son who is as angry at the media as those of us not connected with the NHS.
Raedwald, DJ, I agree too. That said pigs don't eat grass nor to chickens (much). Yes they poke around in the dirt and eat the odd leaf, insect or worm.
Also, the problem is everyone is different, homeostasis of each person, although similar, is not the same which is why ALL the invented 'diets' seem to work for some and not others.
The only way to be sure is eat everything (yes, "in moderation" isn't a cliche) and make sure as much as posible is as natural as possible and not processed or with a slittle processing as possible.
Apparently air cargo traffic has increased:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8199311/Englands-silent-skies.html
Recently the NFU went for a cosy chat with Priti Patel. A few home truths about fruit picking - we are short by about 70,000 and no farmer wants unskilled reluctant pickers - they bu^&er up the product. But no joy from Priti, she shoves it off to Useless Eustace and he has no clue either. Eastern European girls and boys are born knowing how to drive a tractor and plant a lettuce.
Perhaps we can have 'pick your own sheep and goats'. Used to be popular round Birmingham way. But when goat heads with ear tags began showing up in hedgerows and dustbins DEFRA got a bit niggly. The paperwork wasn't right, much trouble for farmer. More a 'help yourself' market now.
A lot of rosy tinted idealism about farming. It is a hard, mucky job before you pass the product over to the abattoir and wholesale chain for chopping and mincing into nice plastic trays. Best grown elsewhere, shipped somewhere in the EU, packed and labeled to suit the final vendor. All this talk of 'quality food', strictly for the well pensioned and the well paid. Has to be done cheaply or no one can afford it, or else housing costs have to come down...
A crop that looks a bit sickly is the lower middle class private school intake. Mummy & Daddy have no job, a monster mortgage and school fees. Their line of business was a bit peripheral anyway, they are struggling. No trouble for the schools, new feedstock from China et al will fill the gap.
When digging over my patch my accompanying chickens hoover up everything that hops crawls or jumps, their eggs taste great.
EXCEPT the brexshiteers are in favour of imprting as much as possible ( Or so it seems )
WHich is bonkers, even for them
Doesn't bother me - I have an allotment.
jim has it - we NEED imported labour, but because of Brexit we aren't going to get it.
Stupid doesn't even begin to describe it.
Greg Tingey said @ 10:32
'EXCEPT the brexshiteers are in favour of imprting (sic) as much as possible..'
Brexit Derangement Syndrome (BDS) is very real and for those afflicted life becomes a study in disappointment, sorrow and rage. With no cure apparent sufferers like Greg are destined to be a twat for the remainder of their lives.
Steve
Need to look at the definition used for Ultra Processed Food, one such was any food with five or more ingredients. That's going to move lots of normal stuff into the UPF column so they can get their scary headlines.
The rise of companies like Just Eat & Deliveroo show that too many consume processed crap nowadays. (Did somebody say that's shite?)
I've been using my time in solitary to experiment in the kitchen. No processed stuff allowed!
Sorry I thought tyres were made with man-made rubber ,not from trees
@Greg Tingey
Must a fucking big allotment, as presumably it has factories and mines as well!
Sounds suspiciously like disapproval of the lower orders eating habits.
Reduce the burden on the NHS by reducing potential for bacterial and viral food contamination by mandating use of plastic wrapping and single use plastic bags.
Improve the countries energy security and need for imports by encouraging franking.
Bloody autocorrect on phones.
Improve energy security and make loads of ethane available for plastic gloves etc by encouraging fracking for gas instead of omporting woodchips from the states and gas.from russia / middle east
Pre EU membership we had Europeans doing our fruit picking and there was no problems then - why should leaving the EU make that any different other than by conflating the Covid issue?
But we should stop using farming land for solar farms, wind turbines and ethanol production let alone 'cash crops' that the EU encouraged and will still (probably) continue post EU.
We've kept hens for 8 years now - great eggs every day and enough to sell to the locals (£1/box/6) and the hens get all the veg waste from my curry business - reminding you that curry is a great 'natural' food with (especially in my case) no additives or artificial stuff!
Thanks for the advertising space Raed!
You're welcome ;)
Any truth tin the rumour that layers are like golddust now.
Last autumn I noticed local petshops/animal charitys had ex layers for £1.00 each.
Not a bad deal, pay for themselves in a week, given 6 eggs a week per hen once they are 1 year old., but have heard they are like unobtanium now?
I'll get a few for you Nessimmersion, my company is feeding several million in the UK.
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