Things are getting crazy.

What on earth is going on, first they say we cant grow enough food and need to import.

In light of the "crisis" a few weeks ago over salad crops this just about takes the biscuit.

Is it a supermarket thing or has the world gone crazy, for as long as I can remember every year they have been growing reliable crops of green stuff in Thanet.

Cauliflower crisis: growers destroy year's supply

 

People don't eat seasonal produce anymore, saying that I've been eating like it's Christmas

 

Pete, Britain should be totally self sufficient veg`- wise. The quicker we dump the corrupt EU the better.

 

You can blame the EU for a lot of things, but blaming them for supermarkets buying policies is a bit of a stretch. I'm pretty sure the supermarkets also buying huge quantities of produce from outside of the EU too.

And ultimately it is us as consumers that are to blame. Supermarkets are businesses. They know all about supply and demand. We demand a convenient and cheap source of food, so the supermarkets supply it.

 

00000000000000000000000000001348Just remember, the French benefited from CAP a damned sight more than British farmers, So don`t give me that " we are to blame" crxp.

 

I find that in the supermarkets, they usually specify the country of origin on all their produce.

There is no law that says you have to buy French, or that you may not ask for British.

If you ran a business as a greengrocer, and the majority of your customers shunned foreign imports even if the British produce was more expensive, you would either drop the foreign stuff and only buy British to sell in your shop, or you'd lose all your customers and go out of business. Simple.

 

I only buy veg from Iceland ( frozen and fresh ), where everything has its Country of origin plainly marked or from our local market where I know it's locally grown.

It's not the EEC that's ruining our farming industry but the British public not buying British grown goods.

I know this is slightly off topic but as I've said before I won't use the likes of Tescos etc as they're way too expensive. I also find Poundland probably one if the most expensive places to shop. I only use them for garden plants etc and cigarette filters/papers.

 

So you'll be buying English-grown avocados and bananas then, Dai?

 

British, ahem,
Dai, is in Wales

But I think we could do without the supermarkets importing the kind of stuff we can actually grow our selves, to some extent.

 

The very existence of the supermarkets is proof that most people cant/don't want to/don't know how to grow their own stuff.

Wales in part of Britain by the way. In fact, technically speaking it's more British than England is. When the Romans came, some Britons fought them, some 'integrated', and some legged it and hid in the hills in the west, and became known as 'Welsh' which in the local lingo of the day meant 'foreign'.

Britain by the way is named such by the Romans, after the roman god of Britania. Same as the Breton region of France, which was once connected to Britain by a natural land bridge.

 

Wales is part of Britain, but it aint part of England as @noisette47 suggested
The existance of supermarkets id down to the fact that most people dont have space, living in a flat or modern house, to grow their own food.

I have two allotments and I'd find it pretty hard to grow all I need for a whole year, I cant grow cows and fish for example?

 

I thought we were Celtic not Britons who jumped over the border

"grow cows and fish"..dreams, eh!

 

Yep. In fact as Britons we are named by the roman invaders. Briton was just what the Romans called the people they found to be living here, which would have been a mix of several peoples, including the celts.

 

Oups...deepest apologies! Slip of the keyboard
You're quite right about the supermarkets, though. Here, it's a mix of those that use local suppliers with produce at grossly inflated prices and those that import dirt-cheap produce from Spain and Morocco..(favourable climates and cheap labour). Customers buy whichever they can afford! Only the well-off can afford loyalty.
You could be (almost) self sufficient if you replaced the exotics with fruit and veg ;-)

 

I could be, but I dont need to be.
But I do buy local if I can.