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Monday 27 August 2018

Brexit: and food self-sufficiency

The media likes a good panic story:


Why stockpiling food won't save the UK from a Brexit disaster | WIRED UK
Stockpiling food for a no-deal Brexit? Really? | Financial Times
Forget stockpiling food – I’m going to be growing my own in the Brexit post-apocalypse - Telegraph
Brexit news latest: What to stockpile in case of a no deal Brexit? | Politics | News | Express.co.uk


No-Deal Brexit? Yes! The country has gone bananas! | Latest Brexit news and top stories - The New European 




At the beginning of the year, BBC's Countryfile was asking the obvious question:
Can the UK feed itself after Brexit? | Countryfile.com

Probably not, according to the Guardian back in 2014:

Britain's food self-sufficiency is in long-term decline, warn farmers
NFU says year's food supply 'would run out today without imports', with homegrown food making up only 60% of total
In July, MPs warned that the nation's ability to feed itself is threatened by "complacency" over the increasingly extreme weather driven by climate change and increasing competition for food as the world's population grows.

Britain's food self-sufficiency is in long-term decline, warn farmers | Environment | The Guardian

But according to UKIP back in 2015, everything's going to be alright:

Could Britain be self-sufficient in food if shove came to push?
The experience of two world wars persuaded British governments that food security was important. By the 1980s Britain produced nearer 70% of her food, partly as a result of the protectionist measures such as the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, although it is worth noting that the EU restricts as well as encourages.

Could Britain be self-sufficient in food if shove came to push? - UKIP Daily | UKIP News | UKIP Debate 


It is clear that self-sufficiency in food has been on the decline:
‘Disturbing’ decline in food production | Financial Times (Feb 2015)
UK food self-sufficiency drops to 60% - Farmers Weekly (Aug 2017)

The farming column in the latest issue of the Private Eye magazine gives a very useful overview:



Private Eye | Official Site - the UK's number one best-selling news and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop

Perhaps small is beautiful:
Comparative disadvantage | Small Farm Future (July 2018)
Food & Farming Politics | Small Farm Future
Self Sufficient Living and Small Scale Farming. Is it Possible?
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