Remember when i was ridiculed for "Food Security" claims?

[Bossfarmer]

Not sure if anyone remembers but one of my main reasons for backing support for farmers was food security, many on here laughed when i mentioned the fact we are an island with over 60m people and a disease outbreak could leave us relying on other countries for our food supply, the fact rationing is now being discussed and flour mills around the world are struggling to keep up with demand after the publics mass panick buying (which i was also ridiculed for suggesting could happen),

Where would the world be in the face of a global pandemic if left to market forces and it only produced enough food as was viably possible?

 

[Bossfarmer]

@Chae1 @Clive @Shutesy @gone up the hill @neilo @JP1 @Hilly @lexion man @chaffcutter @turbo @Beef farmer @beefandsleep @Steakeater

 

[Bogweevil]

That was me me. Sorry.

 

[Brisel]

Give it a year and the rush for food supplies will be forgotten, like it was in 2008. Hopefully it might make the government think about food security a bit more though, rather than leaving food production to "market forces." No rewriting of the Agriculture Bill yet though.

 

[milkloss]

Not sure if anyone remembers but one of my main reasons for backing support for farmers was food security, many on here laughed when i mentioned the fact we are an island with over 60m people and a disease outbreak could leave us relying on other countries for our food supply, the fact rationing is now being discussed and flour mills around the world are struggling to keep up with demand after the publics mass panick buying (which i was also ridiculed for suggesting could happen),

Where would the world be in the face of a global pandemic if left to market forces and it only produced enough food as was viably possible?

they're just disorganised, I doubt there is actually a lack of food, it's still cheap after all. Although countries like China that regularly cook the books to distort the market might get caught out.

 

[Two Tone]

Give it a year and the rush for food supplies will be forgotten, like it was in 2008. Hopefully it might make the government think about food security a bit more though, rather than leaving food production to "market forces." No rewriting of the Agriculture Bill yet though.

I am not so sure, by a long way!
Even if this crisis is over in a year, and I’m not even sure about that, it has caused unprecedented damage to businesses and Government spending, which will take many years to sort out.
I’d even go so far as to say that what they were thinking about with ELMS will now be totally different, even if it goes ahead at all!
Whether that means continued support for growing food crops or market prices increase enough so that support or guaranteed price support is not needed, I’m not sure.

Hopefully lessons will be learned. If there is one thing that any Government absolutely does not want, it is a hungry voter. Especially in a country that only produces 53% of its own food.

One thing that is absolutely guaranteed is that Covid 19 will not be the last of any such type of pandemic in the future!

 

[Brisel]

HM Govt will have another mountain of debt to repay. I doubt there will be much appetite to splash cash on turning 53% self sufficiency into a far higher figure, only to free up trade so we can import more cheaply and more easily. Sorry to be pessimistic about it.

I agree that environmental spending will be less of a priority too if they are short of cash. Having a conscience isn't cheap.

I also agree that a hungry voter will be an angry one - perhaps some good will come of this but it will be later in the year before we see big supply chain shortages.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

It’s too soon to tell but I suspect in a few years time CV will be a vague memory and folk will want their new TV’s paid for tomorrow and cheap food to go with it

 

[Skintagain]

I don’t think it will be forgotten as quick as everyone thinks. It has scared people this disaster. People are very anxious.

 

[Brisel]

I don't think CV19 will be forgotten but history has shown how short memories have been when it came to food security and food production. Ironically, the repeal of the Agriculture Act 1920 that collapsed UK farming then was remembered in the 1947 Agriculture Act that largely set up the UK's farming revolution of the next 50 years. Food rationing into the 1950s helped burn those points into policymakers' memories.

Brexit's impact on farming policy will take Britain back to the 1920s

Subsidies aren’t working but there are other options

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Not sure if anyone remembers but one of my main reasons for backing support for farmers was food security, many on here laughed when i mentioned the fact we are an island with over 60m people and a disease outbreak could leave us relying on other countries for our food supply, the fact rationing is now being discussed and flour mills around the world are struggling to keep up with demand after the publics mass panick buying (which i was also ridiculed for suggesting could happen),

Where would the world be in the face of a global pandemic if left to market forces and it only produced enough food as was viably possible?

Ain’t no food shortage though is there?

 

[deleted user 837354]

Food security my fudge- no one is eating any more than they did 3 weeks ago. Absolute joke, Covid-19 hits and guess what, the answer is more subsidies is it?

 

[Two Tone]

There are many things that will continually remind us in the future do the precarious situation we find ourselves in now for sometime to come.

Before this crisis even began harvest yields for 2020 here and in Northern Europe had already been limited. Of all the wheat planted, half of it cannot yield an average yield. And what about OSR and CSFB damage!
I have to say that looking at many of the photos on TFF of Spring crops being planted doesn’t bode well for a decent yield either!
As farmers, we will also note that virtually all the County Shows are cancelled, Show society crop and livestock competitions cancelled as well as the Cereals Event.

Th Public won’t forget many other things such as their foreign holidays and whether they will even be able to afford them for a few years.
For the first time ever, the Olympics will not take place in a leap year. Not to mention all the other sporting events that are cancelled and the many Clubs that will not survive financially.
Then there is the question as to how far things return to normality. How many of those now forced to work from home will return to the workplace after it is over? How many will eat out or get takeaway food as often as they did?

Will HS2 now go ahead? Will car sales ever get back to sales levels before the crisis?

What the Feck has happened to the EU and all it’s coming together-ness!
It only took a health crisis and every border is shut between them as it’s every country for itself!

What was normal will not be normal for everyone as it was before the crisis. There will be a new normal.

 

[B'o'B]

So demand increases by 400% over 2 weeks @Bossfarmer, can you increase your output by 400% in the same timescale?
The answer is no.
There has been massive panic buying for reasons that are fairly understandable, many people now only buy 1 or 2 days of food at a time but are now being told they may need to self isolate for 2 weeks and so are filling their cupboards to account for this which has broken the supply chain. Give it a week and the supermarket shelves will be full and there will be a drop in demand as people will have run out of cupboard space to store food.

 

[Two Tone]

Food security my fudge- no one is eating any more than they did 3 weeks ago. Absolute joke, Covid-19 hits and guess what, the answer is more subsidies is it?

Hopefully there will be a realisation of the true value of food and subsidies might not even be needed.
Furthermore, we do not know how much foreign food production, harvesting and the International transport of has and will be affected in the future.
My daughter has a Spanish friend now stuck here in the UK and it sounds like salad and veg production is pretty dire in Spain right now.
We are still in very early days as to both the short and long term effect of this Global crisis.

Just this minute had a phone call from our local Farm shop growing Veg to say that they are already running short and are now only supplying their regular customers.

Several other people have contacted me to ask if I can sell them wheat for their chickens as their usual feed suppliers have run out!

If you need to order red diesel or heating oil, don’t expect to see it for a fortnight.

 

[Lowland1]

So demand increases by 400% over 2 weeks @Bossfarmer, can you increase your output by 400% in the same timescale?
The answer is no.
There has been massive panic buying for reasons that are fairly understandable, many people now only buy 1 or 2 days of food at a time but are now being told they may need to self isolate for 2 weeks and so are filling their cupboards to account for this which has broken the supply chain. Give it a week and the supermarket shelves will be full and there will be a drop in demand as people will have run out of cupboard space to store food.

My importer has told me demand for a lot of fruit and veg has flattened out as most people have filled their cupboards and don't need anymore for a while.

 

[Bossfarmer]

HM Govt will have another mountain of debt to repay. I doubt there will be much appetite to splash cash on turning 53% self sufficiency into a far higher figure, only to free up trade so we can import more cheaply and more easily. Sorry to be pessimistic about it.

I agree that environmental spending will be less of a priority too if they are short of cash. Having a conscience isn't cheap.

I also agree that a hungry voter will be an angry one - perhaps some good will come of this but it will be later in the year before we see big supply chain shortages.

surely if anything the case to the public for supporting food production in this country must now be easier, i for one was seriously pee'd off to find empty shelves after a hard days work!

 

[Brisel]

Big swings away from more perishable goods to tinned/packeted too.

 

[Brisel]

surely if anything the case to the public for supporting food production in this country must now be easier, i for one was seriously pee'd off to find empty shelves after a hard days work!

Oh FFS. You still really don't get it The disruption has been the supply chain and buying habits, not production.

 

[Bossfarmer]

Ain’t no food shortage though is there?

wouldnt be so sure and theres a long way to go yet, the point is had it not been for supporting farmers across the world to produce a surplus of food things would be 1000 times worse