I’m not sure what the details of the current trade arrangements are, but I happened across mention of a ban on Irish lamb – or indeed ‘lamb’, i.e. sheep-meat generally – due to TSE. As scrapie is pretty much endemic in the UK too, I imagine the same applies and will continue to apply.
Mention of Wisconsin cheeses puts me in mind of Jerry Pournelle’s assorted anti-Proxmire rants and my own “Da Bears” prejudices, but I’ll try to keep these as cheesehead-safe and on-topic as possible. For most US cheese, this is going to immediately get into GM feed and hormone treatment food standards. The UK government has said it won’t lower those, and of course they’re sticklers for accuracy and keeping to their word{{citation needed}}. Shouldn’t be an issue for organic cheeses, if there are or could be mutually recognised certification schemes.
“I think it is going to be like a series of rolling power cuts in that we are going to see shortages, then shelves replenished, and shortages again. That is going to carry on for as long as demand is unpredictable and labour remains as tight as it is,”
My suspicion is that there won’t be a lot of American agricultural products heading to the UK any time soon. The push back against allowing chlorinated chicken or anything fed from GMO grain will be intense. While I know Wisconsin is a big cheese producer, I am having a hard time coming up with anything other than industrially produced stuff. Nothing I think that would make Wallace trade away his wensleydale.
Talking about lamb, anyone watch Jeremy Clarkson raising and eating lambs on Clarkson’s Farm? I highly recommend that series on Amazon.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
44
We’re all doomed!
Supplies of Haribo gummy bears are at crisis level. It’s a shortage of truck drivers which the Road Haulage Association (the industry body for logistics) is blaming on Brexit and the pandemic. Widely reported in the UK press, for example :-
If I’m interpreting this correctly the problem is not getting gummy bears to the UK, it’s the short haul distribution network that, I perceive, was dominated by non-Brit drivers before Brexit. Am I getting that right?
How are FedEx and DHL doing? I can ship you some gummy bears John.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
47
If only you could get an appointment with a dentist.
Our practice is closed for general treatment and is only dealing (in a fashion) with emergencies. Nothing to do with Brexit, of course. This is all Covid related. There will be a cost down the line when the number of mouth cancer issues increase because they’ve not been spotted at the routine 6 monthly check-up.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
48
I think you are, Dave.
I wouldnt say haulage was dominated by EU drivers (unlike much of hospitality) but apparently they did form a significant percentage. And, as in hospitality and construction, those workers have gone home either not intending to return or unable to return due to the new immigration restrictions.
(PS: I will not hear a word said against FedEx. Wonderful service during the mega sat nav (GPS to you) debacle in 2016.)
Same here in the states. They have resumed regular appointments but are backlogged for months. And the poor dentists are working in overdrive . . . I have an appointment at 8:45 am next Saturday for a dentist who was never open that early on Saturday, And I called for that appointment in May.
I hate Fed Ex, but they always had great drivers and service. They always seemed to show up at 2:55 and I got off at 3 meaning all the overpacked Apple b/s was on my shift and had to be unpacked, received, counted and locked up. Good bye at least an hour.
Maybe I’ve been lucky, but have always had excellent luck with FedEx - the gold standard for delivery IMO.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
53
I may have told this story before about the Great Sat Nav debacle - in which case apologies.
So, back in 2016, we planned our grand music tour of the American South. Nashville for country. Memphis for the Blues and Elvis. New Orleans for jazz. And Cajun country for, erm, Cajun music. Everything was planned. Every location, like hotels and restaurants, was entered into our American sat nav (GPS) that Mrs H had bought on a previous trip. And there we were, sat at Manchester airport waiting for our flight to Atlanta. And Mrs H says “which bag did you put the sat nav in?” A cold shiver engulfed my body, as I realised it was still sat on its shelf at home. All we could do was phone a relative and ask them to go to the house and get it shipped to us somehow. Either to the hotel in Atlanta where we were staying overnight(whihc we could easily find as it was on the airport skytrain route) or to the one in Nashville where we were staying for a few days. And that was all we could do until we got off the plane at Atlanta.
There was a text from the rellie saying that she’d got the device and got it to Fed Ex who would deliver early morning (local time) the next day to our hotel. It was still in the UK then. We had a very early dinner and went to bed. Next morning we’re up very early - transatlantic jetlag is a bugger in both directions. We were able to track its progress on Fedex’s website. It had crossed the ocean and had actually reached Nashville well before we would. It was then on its way to Atlanta. It arrived within 5 minutes of the time they said it would.
I was being owner’s representative on a very (VERY) expensive boat in the Bahamas to look after his interests while the factory team from South Africa did warranty work. We had issues with electronic throttle control (I miss physical cables) and new black boxes were being shipped in from the engine manufacturer. The South African team were rapidly approaching the end of their Bahamian work permits (I had another week on mine). We watched the tracking as the boxes made it to Marsh Harbour in Abaco and disappeared into customs. We had a little hang up there and the local FedEx office had closed by the time the boxes were released. My dear friends at the marina service desk (who I had been feeding M&M peanuts, brownies, and cookies each day) made some local phone calls and found an employee’s sister’s friend’s boyfriend who worked at FedEx. He opened up, found our boxes, and drove them to the marina (the engine people had only paid for pick-up at the office). The South Africa team worked through the night to install the boxes and we went out for testing at first light and the guys made their noon flight.
I now have “my” own FedEx guy in Marsh Harbour. grin
I’ve not had a lot of experience with FedEx – in fact I told someone I was waiting in for a package from them, and they told me there wasn’t any FedEx in Ireland and I must be hallucinating. But from that particular case, their tracking system seems to be usually crazy. Due delivery updated to “by 1800 on ” a couple of days ahead… and just stayed there. Until an hour or so after it’d been delivered – at the extreme other end of the day, naturally. Very annoying if you’re paranoid about missing them, sleeping in during an early delivery, etc. Especially when the delivery depot is inconveniently far away for someone with no car if one ends up having to go fetch.
Is it crazily Karenish to hope for some sort of couple-of-hours type of delivery window, say by the day before delivery?
For most US cheese, this is going to immediately get into GM feed and hormone treatment food standards. The UK government has said it won’t lower those, and of course they’re sticklers for accuracy and keeping to their word{{citation needed}}. Shouldn’t be an issue for organic cheeses, if there are or could be mutually recognised certification schemes.