Marks & Spencer has been criticised for boasting its crisps are made from British potatoes, when it has also used spuds from abroad.
Supermarkets are keen to highlight the British provenance of food, knowing it has a halo effect for shoppers who prefer homegrown produce.
Packs of M&S crisps say on the front: “Made using British potatoes specially selected each season so we are always using the best variety.”
But confused shoppers have discovered some of the same packets stamped with the words “contains non-British potatoes”.
Sometimes local production just doesn’t exist. Which is why it’s such a joy that we can buy from Johnny Foreigner, right?
And tatties are a good example too. The value is so low that large scale international trade doesn’t really happen – transport costs are high as a portion of that low value. So the international trade tends to happen when there is an actual shortage….
Fascinating. I tried to google the details of this dire shortage. And I found that there seems to be a potato shortage every year.
Is there actually a glut?? Do they need to frighten people into buying them?
All I can say is that, here in Brissy, I never seem to have any problem buying one when preparing my Rubbish Bin Stew.
Bboy – a lot of “shortages” in the UK turn out to be a photo of a single aisle just before restocking.
It then gets re-Xeeted ad nauseam until it’s an article of Established Truth that Brexit / Climate Change / Racism / The Tories caused a holodomor.
If you try telling people there’s no actual famine, with facts and data to support your argument, you get the laugh reacts and accusations of being a troll. That’s our public discourse now – insane liars laughing at the truth.
Despite regular media coverage insisting there’s some sort of potato famine, I am pleased to report that chip shops are still open and Diane Abbott is still dangerously underweight.
Thanks Steve. I’m glad there’s no shortage, and that you can all pig out when you feel like it!!
“Which is why it’s such a joy that we can buy from Johnny Foreigner, right?”
Yes. But there’s a big difference between buying from JF when there’s a shortage at home, vs buying from JF when there’s plenty at home but JF is a few pounds a tonne cheaper, and thus putting the home producers out of business. And then finding that JF has a shortage, and you can’t buy any from him for love nor money, and there’s no local producers left.
I overheard a couple (whom i know) in a pub extoll the virtues of Lidl. They were saying that they patronised them particularly because the milk was British. I piped up, (1st mistake), that probably all milk sold in any supermarket is British, on the grounds that driving refrigerated tankers of 90% chilled perishable water thousands of miles over from the continent would be quite expensive. 2nd mistake was to think looking it up on google would settle matters.
you can’t buy any from him for love nor money, and there’s no local producers left
Quite so but then the domestic farming industry is completely distorted by government. The large landowner of the fields around here probably would have failed to get a qualification from the Eddie Grundy Agricultural College but does very nicely from the taxpayer thank you very much. What he has in hand are rolling acres of thistles and brambles plus a small suckler herd on “organic pasture” replete with ragwort which DEFRA rules shouldn’t be within 100m of grazing livestock. The rest of the land is worked by a contractor as arable with his kamikaze tractor drivers to make the lanes safe for kiddies.
We’re talking about grade three downland ideal for grazing instead of which its a government sponspored catastrophe. DEFRA needs to have the “E” people despatched to feeding the Lions and the “RA” lot should be moved to the flame-thrower research unit to see if they calcinate prettily.
Just wait till they find out where Yorkshire tea is grown.
It was pretty common to see new potatoes from Cyprus and Egypt as well as Jersey. I haven’t looked recently.
“Quite so but then the domestic farming industry is completely distorted by government. The large landowner of the fields around here probably would have failed to get a qualification from the Eddie Grundy Agricultural College but does very nicely from the taxpayer thank you very much. What he has in hand are rolling acres of thistles and brambles plus a small suckler herd on “organic pasture” replete with ragwort which DEFRA rules shouldn’t be within 100m of grazing livestock. The rest of the land is worked by a contractor as arable with his kamikaze tractor drivers to make the lanes safe for kiddies.”
And thats only going to get worse. The current Defra brilliant idea (courtesy of Michael Gove – seriously why has no-one defenestrated this man yet?) is to pay farmers to not produce food at all. At least the old subsidy system allowed farmers to produce food AND get the subsidy, thus meaning marginal producers stayed producing and prices were kept low for consumers because there was always a surplus in the marketplace. The new scheme will make it impossible to farm and take the money, the conditions are at odds to the efficient farming of the land.
The new scheme will pay me about £200/acre pure profit (ie after costs) to not grow commercial arable crops, and instead grow a mix of many crops and leave it unharvested to provide winter food for birds. It will pay a similar amount to not cut grass for hay, or graze animals on it and leave that to seed for birds as well. I have worked out that if I ceased all food production on my farm I could make more than I did when I was producing food, including getting the full old subsidy.
The whole world has gone stark staring bonkers.
Jim – if they were deliberately trying to starve us to death, what would they do differently?
And here I was thinking the Sri Lankan and Dutch governments were morons.
At least the UK government makes sure they have company.
Jim, your explanation of Oiky Goves new idea reminded me of Doug and Dinsdale:
“When the Piranhas left school they were called up but were found by an Army Board to be too unstable even for National Service. Denied the opportunity to use their talents in the service of their country, they began to operate what they called ‘The Operation’… They would select a victim and then threaten to beat him up if he paid the so-called protection money. Four months later they started another operation which the called ‘The Other Operation’. In this racket they selected another victim and threatened not to beat him up if he didn’t pay them. One month later they hit upon ‘The Other Other Operation’. In this the victim was threatened that if he didn’t pay them, they would beat him up. This for the Piranha brothers was the turning point.
Michael Gove – seriously why has no-one defenestrated this man yet?
Yes, the slithy Gove badly needs levelling down. He’d make a lovely leonine luncheon.
Shortage of potatoes in Ireland? Must be the fault of the wicked English.
@Steve – “Jim – if they were deliberately trying to starve us to death, what would they do differently?”
They would ensure that we were totally self-sufficient for a sufficiently long time that there were no routine imports, and then they would impose rules and regulations which effectively prevented imports. Eventually, some form of crop failure would arise and in the absence of easy imports people would starve.
At least that was what happened to Ireland, which was totally self sufficient (and, indeed, exporting food) when famine struck in th emid 1800s.
@Witchie – “Shortage of potatoes in Ireland? Must be the fault of the wicked English.”
Well, there can be some debate over whether it was the English specifically, but the Corn Laws were an important factor. These were intended to prevent cheap imports which would compete with British (which at the time included all of Ireland) farmers.
In contrast, two world wars have proved that reliance on food imports is not a problem.
“In contrast, two world wars have proved that reliance on food imports is not a problem.”
That’ll be why the State virtually nationalised farming in 1939 and directed farmers to plough up just about every square foot of land in order to generate more food I suppose?
Yes. Because that’s what needs to be done to feed these islands from these isalnds. So let’s only do that when we really have to, eh?
Be careful Charles.
Famines in Ireland were quite frequent events. Certain areas could produce surplus food because they had been “improved” ie turned into commercial operations as had happened in England, but there was still a lot of subsistence farming. The exports of crops during the famine were mostly of grain and other not very perishable foodstuffs.
It took it a while, but once the British government realised the magnitude of the problem, it started food aid for the affected areas. Also emigration was officially encouraged, which is not often acknowledged.
The lesson of the Second WW was that Britain had to be able to feed itself in a time of crisis, which has spawned the behemoth that is government meddling in agriculture, made worse by complying to EU directives gold-plated by insane civil servants.
With a population of “who knows how many” now, food self-sufficiency is nigh impossible. It was achievable with a smaller, homogenous and compliant population and strict rationing in 1917-18 and 39-54.
“. So let’s only do that when we really have to, eh?”
Except we are far less resilient than we were then. Most people had a garden, and could grow veg, keep animals for food. People knew how to kill and butcher animals, could prepare meals from raw materials. Now if the frozen pizza aisle was empty people would start to go hungry. There’s 70m people in the country who need a square meal every day. If they don’t get it sh*t is going to get real, fast. So doesn’t it make sense to keep at least enough UK production that everyone can be fed (probably in conjunction with rationing) so that there is at least some security of supply? Why are you so convinced that ships laden with food will always be able to get here from somewhere else, forever?
Jim,
“Why are you so convinced that ships laden with food will always be able to get here from somewhere else, forever?”
It doesn’t have to be *forever* though. Maybe in 30 years, Germany goes fascist and all Lebensraum-y and we have to ramp up self-sufficiency in 2053 because of U-boat attacks, but the new threat isn’t going to emerge in 2052. It’s going to be something that grows over a decade, which is plenty of time to create a giant agricultural workforce turning golf courses into fields of turnips.
“It doesn’t have to be *forever* though. Maybe in 30 years, Germany goes fascist and all Lebensraum-y and we have to ramp up self-sufficiency in 2053 because of U-boat attacks, but the new threat isn’t going to emerge in 2052. It’s going to be something that grows over a decade, which is plenty of time to create a giant agricultural workforce turning golf courses into fields of turnips.”
What makes you think the next threat will come slowly over time that we can foresee and plan for? And anyway its not as if our Lords and Masters are that good at planning now is it? There’ll always be a reason not to change the food supply to back home, some other political nostrum du jour that just MUST have all available resources thrown at it.
Covid has shown us that things can change globally over night, and the Ukraine situation shows us that the West can’t even plan for something as obvious as Putin invading Ukraine. I mean what plans do they have for what to do if China invades Taiwan? None as far as I can see, its just head in the sand and hope it doesn’t happen.
Either we make sure that the UK can produce enough food to get by now, or we starve, because there won’t be time to sort it when the SHTF.
@Ottokring – “The lesson of the Second WW was that Britain had to be able to feed itself in a time of crisis,”
No. The lesson was that Britain did not need to be able to feed itself as even with a world war in progress, it was impossible to effectively blockade all routes.
@Jim – “I mean what plans do they have for what to do if China invades Taiwan?”
China is not going to invade the UK. Nor will it be able to blockade food supplies to a minor ally of Taiwan at such a distance. Maybe it has escaped your attention, but the days of the British Empire are gone, so we’re not at the centre of world events any more, and locally, we’re not going to have a war with France or Belgium any time soon either.
“China is not going to invade the UK. Nor will it be able to blockade food supplies to a minor ally of Taiwan at such a distance.”
My point was that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and the subsequent massive disruption to global supply chains will have a massive impact on the West. What exactly are our Betters doing to plan for this entirely predictable eventuality?
No. The lesson was that Britain did not need to be able to feed itself as even with a world war in progress, it was impossible to effectively blockade all routes.
Self sufficiency ( as near as possible ) was exactly the Attlee Government’s policy, which is why the Min of Ag became so interventionist. “The Man from the Ministry knows better than the farmer” because he had all the latest scientific information for increasing yields. And Britain was in 1942/3 living off of reserves.
The Archers was originally sponsored by the Min of Ag to give farmers top tips on increasing production ad well as discussing Doris’ varicose veins.
@Ottokring – ““The Man from the Ministry knows better than the farmer” because he had all the latest scientific information for increasing yields.”
Adn we all know that centrally planned farming is superior to doing by market forces. That’s why the Soviet Union and China under communism had vast surpluses of food which was the only thing that prevented the capitalist West from starving throughout the 20th century. Right?
‘https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20070419_Gaidar.pdf;’
I naturally like Gaidar’s approach Charles. But of course he was rightly a founder of the Union of Right Forces.