you better start hoarding bacon!!!!!!!!

[wargarden]

you better start hording bacon. but there will be sausage glut
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/08/10/brexit-breakfast-bacon-will-menu-no-deal-thankfully-sausage/

[suffolk]

Nonsense ... in the UK people who are interested in food buy locally produced meat from quality suppliers

http://www.emmettsham.co.uk/

Brexit may cause a hiccough in veg and fruit supplies, not to mention car parts .., but a shortage of quality bacon ??? Not a chance.

That really is Fake News

[StokeySue]

I bought some lovely Hampshire bacon today
I haven't bought Danish or Dutch in years
However, I suppose if the people who normally do buy EU bacon change to British, there will be a bit of a shortage - everything has knock on effects, and that may make the price go up.

[suffolk]

I don’t think I’ve seen Danish bacon in our local supermarket.

But if those who usually buy Danish switch to UK bacon I doubt they’ll be buying the local top quality stuff from Emmetts (above) or Pickerings on Norwich market https://www.sausageshop.co.uk/bacon

or from here https://www.pinneysoforford.co.uk/produ ... olk-bacon/

[Pepper Pig]

Yep. What they said. I don’t buy bacon very often but when I do it is top quality local English bacon.

[earthmaiden]

I don't like bacon much. I won't be hoarding it.

[Seatallan]

I shall be mainly buying the fab local bacon and sausages

[Pepper Pig]

Your point is wargarden?

[Ratatouille]

On the rare occassions I can lay my hands on bacon -ie when friends bring me an Ocado order - I always buy British. My best friend here is Danish and even she won't buy Danish bacon and ham unless it is organic. and loves it when I get a good gammon joint from the UK.

I'm sure UK foodies wouldn't be buying Danish or Dutch products anyway. We are foodies after all.

[StokeySue]

While I think hoarding bacon might be silly no amount of virtue signalling about Wildies only buying posh local bacon is going to protect us from the reality

If the there is only 60 or 70% of the current weekly amount of bacon in the supply chain, then the price will go up and there [b]will[|b] be local shortages. Simple arithmetic. The impact may be slightly reduced by big caterers, who probably use most of the inexpensive imported bacon cutting down on use but it will still be there. The idea that you won’t be affected by it because you buy local is not realistic.

[Pepper Pig]

But the assumption by Wargarden seems to be that we all live on bacon. This family can manage quite well without it. And sausages.

[StokeySue]

I think that’s rather a lot to read into a (probably light hearted) caption to a link!

[Pepper Pig]

The worrying thing about the link is that it was from the Telegraph and available paywall free. They seem to be Boris/Brexit mad at the moment. So why is this guy scaremongering?

[StokeySue]

I can’t work out the Telegraph at the moment
The non-political stuff is sometimes good and usually pay walled but every so often you get things like this
My suspicion is that some social media friendly snippets are not pay walled as a PR investment?

[Suelle]

If we believed the health reports about the dangers of processed meats such as bacon, none of us would be buying it at all, whatever the quality.

[suffolk]

I take gentle exception to the allegation of virtue signalling ... I am the daughter of a pig farmer, my niece is a commercial farmer of free range pigs, my former next door neighbour runs one of the best bacon processors in Suffolk and a lad my son grew up with runs a smokehouse producing some of the finest bacon I’ve ever tasted ... of course I buy local top quality bacon whenever I can ... why wouldn’t I? If I can’t get it or if the time comes when I can’t afford it then I’ll go without.
Not virtue signalling at all ... surely the time hasn’t come when Wildies cant be honest about liking good food that’s ethically produced, and buying the best they can when they can , without being accused of virtue signalling?

[StokeySue]

Suffolk, it wasn’t aimed at you but at the thread as a whole - I didn’t like the tone of the responses to what I assumed was a bit of levity

[earthmaiden]

I have to admit that I agreed with Sue when I read what she'd written. If we cannot not get foreign goods of a certain grade then demand for British will increase and they will become scarcer and more expensive. Not just sausages and bacon!

About the bacon thing. I have seen bacon almost put on a pedestal in the USA where I believe Wargarten resides, thus many Americans reading the article might view a scarcity as more of a catastrophe than us.

Suelle is right too, perhaps Brexit will be good for our health even if food does not have to be rationed .

[wargarden]

the thread was bit levity but there is the fact that you might not be able the high quality stuff, Since like during WW2 ;
there could be rationing. one type cheese and one type bread. But there were also limits on price and quantities that could be bought.
But there is also 30% of UK food goes to waste now. During the war waste was discouraged and even fats were saved,
But the one good part of Brexit is there will be not be any enemy bombing major cities.

[earthmaiden]

I don't think we can rule out anything where Brexit is concerned. No-one's got a clue how the saga will unfold.

[wargarden]

earthmaiden you can rule out bombing. unless the Remainders and Brexit proponents start a civil war.
don't worry i am sure the Americans will butter bomb the UK
given the milk glut in USA.
As for bacon; can you can buy spare USA bacon since the Chinese stopped buying USA
pork because of the trade war; even though they are facing Porkageddon because of
African swine fever. the UK may be facing tariffs on exported goods but they might resist
putting tariffs on imported food from the USA or other places.

you can safely freeze bacon 4 months

[Gruney]

Wargarden - I congratulate you on your improved use of the English language.

[suffolk]

Weren’t we asked a while ago not to discuss Brexit and it’s likely impact? That’s why I steered away from that area of the discussion.

As I’ve said before, we buy local higher welfare meat whenever we can. I know that welfare standards for commercially raised pigs in the UK are better than almost anywhere else in the world. I think I would rather not eat meat at all than buy it from some of the countries we are likely to be forced to deal with ... and for those of you who know me as a committed nose to tail carnivore, you’ll realise the strength of my feelings on the subject.

This may be of interest to folk who care about animal welfare http://www.pig-world.co.uk/news/highlig ... itors.html

[Gruney]

As I’ve said before, we buy local higher welfare meat whenever we can. I know that welfare standards for commercially raised pigs in the UK are better than almost anywhere else in the world. I think I would rather not eat meat at all than buy it from some of the countries we are likely to be forced to deal with ... and for those of you who know me as a committed nose to tail carnivore, you’ll realise the strength of my feelings on the subject.

That's my stance too.

[scullion]

you're right, there's always the vegetarian/vegan option.
obviously, hoarding bacon hadn't even registered with me - hoarding our coffee of choice is another matter altogether but even then i think i could make do with dandelion coffee!
if america has a milk lake why don't they produce more (interesting) cheeses? - of the hard and blue varieties not the processed type or the soft ones.
i hope we don't import any more food from the usa. apart from the welfare/hygiene aspect the increase in CO2 emissions would be egregious.

[wargarden]

the increase in CO2 emissions would be egregious.

try reading this article carbon foot print
food miles are not the always the major part of the carbon food print
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/food-miles-carbon-footprints-climate-change-sustainability-a9050406.html

[karadekoolaid]

Let´s be perfectly clear.
NO-ONE, and I repeat, NO-ONE can foretell the future. Many have tried and all have failed.
If there is Brexit, NO-ONE knows what will happen.
If there is no deal, NO-ONE knows what will happen.

So for someone to say " Buy this, buy that, put your money here, this is not going to be available..." SORRY!! Don´t believe you!!

[scullion]

i agree, not all food comes with a (relatively) high carbon footprint but your suggestion was for the importing of bacon/meat from the u.s. which would, and disastrously so, if it was air freighted.
i'm not against people eating meat (à chacun son gout), just the way it's unnecessarily passed around the planet rather than being produced local to its consumers.

from your linked article:-

A 100g box of blueberries grown locally or imported via ship will produce around 100g of carbon dioxide. If it’s flown in, that increases by ten times, pushing its carbon footprint up to more like 1kg.
“If you want to go into the high carbon footprint foods then once it’s been air freighted you’re in real trouble. That’s when the food miles absolutely soar in terms of emissions. We should have a blanket ban on air freight,” said Professor Reay.

more reading for you.
there is some more recent data about the comparison between the breakdown/ persistence of cattle methane emissions and air travel CO2 but i would have to search it out.

[Pepper Pig]

Ahem!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng ... -food-shop

[earthmaiden]

I was interested to read the other day that the chicken imported from Thailand ( very common in take aways & processed chicken dishes) was deemed by the RSPCA as having been more humanely reared than much of the chicken in the UK. If, as a nation, we already want masses of chicken from anywhere we can get it without caring too much about the provenance or air miles then this is quite reassuring.

[karadekoolaid]

It is patently evident that there will be temporary shortages of one thing or another while new suppliers are contracted or while old suppliers re-negotiate current business agreements. Assuming Brexit happens, which I´m sure it will, some Hell or high water, then the UK is facing dramatic upheaval and radical change. It´s been almost 50 years , after all.
As an outsider looking in, ( and as someone who has experienced radical change, on a smaller scale, in huge multinational companies), I can assure you that there will be inconveniences, uncertainty, depression, elation and a whole gamut of differences. I don´t need to foresee the future to tell you that.
What does rankle a tiny bit is (a) the Doom & Gloom merchants - like the Grauniad, some financial circles, and the Remainers, who paint a future UK as some sort of post-war Soviet state, bereft of basic food items, business deals and industry; and (b) the gleeful, euphoric Daily Mail / Express group, the hardline Brexiteers and the dyed-in-the-wool nationalists, who seem to believe that the UK will be a free market paradise.
I might suggest there will be a bit of both, for a while, because change is inevitable. Change always brings problems; but it´s either " get on the train and let´s go" or " remain on the platform and wonder what the heck happened".
I don´t envy you - said he, with greetings from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Cubavenezuela!!

[Pepper Pig]

You don’t see the paywall papers KK. They have a very different view,

[karadekoolaid]

You don’t see the paywall papers KK

Sorry , I don´t know what a paywall paper is - enlighten me

[Pepper Pig]

Sorry KK. The national newspapers that you can’t read unless you pay a subscription. The Times, The Telegraph, anything else Murdoch.

[karadekoolaid]

Ahh, ok - but I do read them, even if it´s only a few items a week. ( and sometimes, just the headlines!!)

[Pepper Pig]

You’ll see then that The Torygraph has gone completely bonkers, quite reversing its stance now that Boris, one of its journalists, is PM.

[karadekoolaid]

That´s the thing, you see. You called it "Torygraph". I just read the articles from a neutral point of view, just as I do the Times, the Mirror, the Grauniad,( although the spelling mistakes have improved over the past 40 years) the Independent - and even the Washington Post!

[dennispc]

Scullion, a massive thank you for the link on differences between methane and carbon gas emissions. I’ve been looking for something like that for (seemingly) a long time for one of our coffee mornings.

According to government data, buying a tomato grown in the UK has three times the footprint of a tomato grown in Spain.

I wish such articles gave a reference, but I’ll go looking. Just as I’ve been looking at how governments obtain the figures in the first place, it ain’t easy. I remember reading a blog that insisted countries only counted carbon emissions whilst a plane was within its borders. Thus a plane flying from New York to London (say) wouldn’t include the Atlantic bit until entering UK airspace. Do the same for ships and the carbon emitted is massively under recorded.

Back to bacon. Don’t eat a lot and get it from a butcher who only buys in local meat and makes his own sausages.

If demand for bacon increases from UK consumers, then presumably producers would be happy to reduce transport costs to serve the UK market.

I don’t plan on buying American meat, too many antibiotics, growth hormones and so on.

[Meganthemog]

Scullion, a massive thank you for the link on differences between methane and carbon gas emissions. I’ve been looking for something like that for (seemingly) a long time for one of our coffee mornings.

According to government data, buying a tomato grown in the UK has three times the footprint of a tomato grown in Spain.

I wish such articles gave a reference, but I’ll go looking. Just as I’ve been looking at how governments obtain the figures in the first place, it ain’t easy. I remember reading a blog that insisted countries only counted carbon emissions whilst a plane was within its borders. Thus a plane flying from New York to London (say) wouldn’t include the Atlantic bit until entering UK airspace. Do the same for ships and the carbon emitted is massively under recorded.

Back to bacon. Don’t eat a lot and get it from a butcher who only buys in local meat and makes his own sausages.

If demand for bacon increases from UK consumers, then presumably producers would be happy to reduce transport costs to serve the UK market.

I don’t plan on buying American meat, too many antibiotics, growth hormones and so on.

I was speaking to a guy who has been living in the US for many years - his kids were born there but he has just moved back. His kids have always hated chicken - until they tasted British and now they love it. Speaks volumes