A comparison occurred to me as I have been providing weather interpretation and other consultations to friends and customers in US Florida and in the British Virgin Islands. Brexit is entirely a political/bureaucratic/administrative event. The roads will work, the trains will work, the phones will work, … What a stroke of the pen can do, a stroke of the pen can resolve.
When infrastructure is disrupted or destroyed by events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, shifts in the path of the Gulf Stream, and other disasters simply getting survival aid to those affected can be a major challenge.
Without minimizing the stress of Brexit on those who feel like Arthur Dent lying before a bulldozer one might consider their relative good fortune.
Thirty-three days to go.
Another observation more on point is that many foods that have limited shelf life are based on ingredients that last quite some time. Rather than the dehydrated food “kits” I take such glee in denigrating consider flour, sugar, oil, salt, preserved meats, eggs, dried herbs, and such. You can make bread. You can make mayonnaise. You can make your own spice mixes. You can, in short, pretty much eat as you are used to in all likelihood.
You may find you like British cheeses better than French. grin
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
62
British cheeses are pretty much the only ones that get eaten in this house. And, indeed, most of them will be from this region (northwest England).
And, as mentioned on another thread, we now make significantly more different cheeses than the French.
Actually I wonder what will happen the other way round, meaning if English export like cheese, meat will be more expensive on the European continent than today? Looks like with a no deal, there will be retaliation. I like the Tyrrell’s chips in my local supermarket. Maybe I should stock up a few of them.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
64
Assuming “no deal”, there will, presumably, be tariffs both ways which is bound to make imported food more expensive.
It is a major worry for, say, sheep farmers here who export about 30% of their output, almost all to EU countries. This “fact check” link suggests tariffs could add anywhere between 38% and 91% to the price of exported lamb. At that sort of level, our neighbours will simply not want to buy it and, wiithout a market, those farms are quickly out of business.
The problem with simplistic analyses like that of Channel 4 News is that they look at one change (an independent variable) and assume everything else stays the same. Life doesn’t work that way. It’s very likely, using the example of mutton and lamb, that as EU proteins become more expensive, people in the UK will eat more lamb and food that would otherwise have been exported but instead goes to internal consumption. You may be tired of lamb but I’m not there. Yet. grin
I’m not too sure if Japan is such a big market. I think asians are seasonal consumers for lamb, meaning mainly winter.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
67
The flaw in that argument is that comparitively little fresh protein in the UK comes from the EU. The only way British consumers eat all that extra lamb is if they stop eating British beef, pork and chicken, which puts us on a merry-go-round. For example, the lamb in my supermarket is only ever from the UK or New Zealand (and the latter only because of seasonal availability issues).
Thank you for the insight John. I will be writing the USTR directly and suggesting that the support Mr. Trump offered to Mr. Johnson could be getting lamb to the US. I will do my part to eat it.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
70
No, no - what needs to be done is to encourage your farmers in Colorado to raise more lamb. I’ve eaten it on a couple of occasions and it’s excellent.
Harters, has the British-based HBO series, Years and Years, been well-received in the U.K.? I thought it was outstanding, but it didn’t have much buzz here in the U.S. The effects of Brexit and climate change upon food supplies were featured, especially the unavailability of meat. The near future that it predicts is frightening, depressing, and not unlikely. The later episodes, aired a month ago, included people who contracted, or were exposed to, a pandemic flu, being sent to internment camps where no medical care was provided, as a way to kill immigrants while maintaining plausible deniability. Now, the Trump administration is denying measles vaccination to the undocumented immigrants it is detaining indefinitely here in “the land of the free”. The creators of Years and Years thought they were making a cautionary tale, but it is looking more like a visionary prediction which our abhorrent leaders are using as a roadmap.
Au contraire, our dog has not sniffed about the outcome. The dog’s observation is simply that British constitutional law puzzles those on this side of the Pond who would not leave matters of national foreign, trade, border, etc. policy to be carried out as a result of a poorly conceived, let alone framed/worded, plebiscite. Maybe the Government that sponsored the Referendum had no use for, or trust in, good constitutional lawyers.
I thought the same thing. Then realized that these signs were placed where they had identified wildlife trails, paths that deer et al had been crossing from one area to another, from pasture to stream, and where they might well be expected to cross. And in other areas that were fenced off along freeways, where there were openings that allowed wildlife to cross, with matching openings across the road.
Remove if this is considered political, but I am currently reading Madeleine Albright’s “Fascism”. While I have issue with her writing style, she is providing me with many “hooks” on which to hang further research on my part. So much modern history that I have lived through without either grasping it or reflection. Recommend as a tool to understanding modern times.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
79
I thought it was the best drama so far this year. It has a particular resonance as almost all of the filming was done in Manchester, which is my regional centre. So, whilst I may not have recognised actual locations, it all felt very local. Characters accents are my accent.
The plot was good. You just knew the new populist prime minister was going to turn out to be a very wrong 'un. And your mention of flu is particularly appropriate today. Only last night, the Royal College of Physicians warned that Brexit is very likely to cause a shortage of flu vaccine this year and that this year’s flu appears to be a virulent form. The National Health Service gives free vaccinations to vulnerable groups - seniors (like me) and others with particular chronic illnesses (like COPD, asthma - also me).
I’ll be happy to make a small wager that, if there are shortages, the populist right wing will be suggesting that “others” be denied drugs to ensure “British” people get them. It is a small step to that from their current push that immigrants take jobs, depress wages, have caused the housing crisis, etc. And then it’s only a small step into the future until you’re in “Years & Years” territory.
Hello to all, recent political discussions in HO created a lot of disputes between members. I understand in this age, remaining political neutral is very difficult, even for a food forum. I would therefore, invite all the participants to continue the political discussion in the backroom, while the thread tries to dedicate to food related issues. Thanks everybody.
