The big Brexit thread - news, updates and discussion

[Flavour]

There are plenty of better choices than wrongheaded dogmatic localism.

Like voting Labour?

 

[tommers]

Why are an airline sending us vegetables?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

This is bollocks. And I said nothing about heating said greenhouses, nor polytunnels. Food miles are bad, end of story. People just want to justify it because the thought of relying on what can be grown locally offends their middle class privilege. But that was largely how the world worked until very very recently. We're all spoilt silly by globalization. Growing your own food is one of the most radical things you can do. It's not just about the food as the system which delivers it -in the case of your imported avocados and cashews and so on it is exploitative, environmentally damaging and corporately manged.

You specifically referenced using greenhouses to grow hotter-weather crops, tbf.

Which bits of the article are bollocks? The point about air or sea is an important one, no? Not all food miles are equal.

 

[TopCat]

God bless the Germans.

Why are an airline sending us vegetables?

They are manky and it's cheaper than feeding them to dogs.

 

[TopCat]

You specifically referenced using greenhouses to grow hotter-weather crops, tbf.

Which bits of the article are bollocks? The point about air or sea is an important one, no? Not all food miles are equal.

Greenhouses and poly tunnels are not all heated.

 

[DotCommunist]

Why are an airline sending us vegetables?

returning the favour for the berlin airlift maybe.

 

[2hats]

Food miles aren't as big a contributor as heating greenhouses and polytunnels is.

Depends on the energy source used. Ignores pollution driven health issues. The geothermally heated greenhouses in Iceland aren't contributing a lot to greenhouse emissions.

 

[not-bono-ever]

It’s the Berlin airlift in reverse. At least they are not having to send us coal nowadays

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Greenhouses and poly tunnels are not all heated.

But we need to talk about specifics here, not generalities. What actually happens? What is actually possible? Eg this bit in the article:

Lettuces grown in the UK during winter are cultivated in poly tunnels which require lots of energy to keep them warm. In terms of carbon emissions, it is more environmentally friendly to buy them from Spain during the winter and in the UK during the summer.

 

[teuchter]

This is bollocks. And I said nothing about heating said greenhouses, nor polytunnels. Food miles are bad, end of story. People just want to justify it because the thought of relying on what can be grown locally offends their middle class privilege. But that was largely how the world worked until very very recently. We're all spoilt silly by globalization. Growing your own food is one of the most radical things you can do. It's not just about the food as the system which delivers it -in the case of your imported avocados and cashews and so on it is exploitative, environmentally damaging and corporately manged.

The idea that everyone can grow their own food is privileged middle class hippy nonsense.

 

[TopCat]

But we need to talk about specifics here, not generalities. What actually happens? What is actually possible? Eg this bit in the article:

How about we eat seasonal veg grown in the UK?

 

[tommers]

returning the favour for the berlin airlift maybe.

I'm really confused.

Why have Lufthansa got 80 tons of veg lying about? Why have they sent it to Doncaster? And who is paying for it?

Weird.

 

[bimble]

returning the favour for the berlin airlift maybe.

I was just reading about that! Amazing what happened, the quantities.

 

[brogdale]

Why are an airline sending us vegetables?

A reverse, retro Berliner Luftbrücke?

 

[TopCat]

The EU pay landowners here to leave land fallow whilst we import millions of tonnes of veg from all over Europe. Bonkers.

 

[Artaxerxes]

There's now a pandemic making everything more of a disaster.

Note the references to tory sleaze, which if anything is now worse but with far fewer consequences. I don't know what they'd have to do to lose their grip on power but apparently killing 100,000 people and threatening to starve everyone else doesn't cut it

This is why I honestly can't get to upset with the EU, yes its a club of elite toffs who are in it for the money but mechanisms in France and Germany mean those toffs get beaten up if they go to hard for full Capitalism now.

Leaving the EU has us stuck in the UK with the fucking Tories in charge and very little in the way of opposition This is the reason I voted Remain, I had no wish to be left alone with the fuckers.

 

[not-bono-ever]

I was just reading about that! Amazing what happened, the quantities.

. This isn’t a bad buke on it from my own library

 

[Flavour]

The idea that everyone can grow their own food is privileged middle class hippy nonsense.

Not as middle class as imagining having tropical fruit and veg on the shelves is somehow normal.

 

[Chz]

How about we eat seasonal veg grown in the UK?

Because changing land use is one of the most environmentally unfriendly things you can do, and we'd have to plough under a lot of land to feed ourselves. Even if it was all in-season.

 

[TopCat]

Because changing land use is one of the most environmentally unfriendly things you can do, and we'd have to plough under a lot of land to feed ourselves. Even if it was all in-season.

Create lots of jobs, fresher food and cheaper too.

 

[bimble]

Not as middle class as imagining having tropical fruit and veg on the shelves is somehow normal.

No more bananas and oranges ? Or is it just the silly stuff like cumquats.

 

[The39thStep]

Supermarket was heaving with fresh fruit and lettuce today.

Thank heavens , normally at xmas there are queues for lettuce

 

[splonkydoo]

Not so much french as Central Europeans - these poor fuckers spend weeks on the road at a time, cabotaging their way around Europe and beyond.

Yep. We sent a package through a semi official courier that runs from Ireland to Romania (and everywhere in between) last Sunday.. The driver was on the trip with his teenage son and last we heard they were stuck in Dover for a few days, when they should have been home for Christmas already.

 

[TopCat]

Thank heavens , normally at xmas there are queues for lettuce

Christmas dinner would not be the same without a lettuce and avocado warm salad.

 

[Yossarian]

Not as middle class as imagining having tropical fruit and veg on the shelves is somehow normal.

I must be posher than I thought because I do think it's pretty normal to find bananas in supermarkets.

 

[Flavour]

Yeah wtf even are bananas. The ones you eat were basically invented in the UK. Cavendish. Are they even that good? Oranges from Spain not a huge problem imo all things considered, they were imported already hundreds of years ago, albeit only for the very rich. I forsee no future without citrus. But bananas... Meh. Read up about the supply chain. Why the phrase "banana Republic"? Lots of exploitation there.

No more bananas and oranges ? Or is it just the silly stuff like cumquats.

 

[teuchter]

Not as middle class as imagining having tropical fruit and veg on the shelves is somehow normal.

I wasn't aware of the fact that only the middle classes eat, say, bananas.
Anyway, it is normal. Children not dying in the first couple of years is also now normal. It wasn't in the past, so maybe we should get rid of it? Probably not possible to source all of our healthcare needs from the back garden.

 

[TopCat]

I must be posher than I thought because I do think it's pretty normal to find bananas in supermarkets.

It wont happen after Brexit apparently.

 

[Flavour]

I must be posher than I thought because I do think it's pretty normal to find bananas in supermarkets.

When did that start? How has consumption changed over time? What keeps prices down? Who is really paying, if yours are so cheap?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Yeah wtf even are bananas. The ones you eat were basically invented in the UK. Cavendish. Are they even that good? Oranges from Spain not a huge problem imo all things considered, they were imported already hundreds of years ago, albeit only for the very rich. I forsee no future without citrus. But bananas... Meh. Read up about the supply chain. Why the phrase "banana Republic"? Lots of exploitation there.

So you pay a little more for fair trade bananas. They do exist, and they're not that expensive.

But that's surely a 'middle class' thing to do.

You're all over the place.